Aaron Rodgers is an outdated cry-baby and the Packers front office is equally bad. Apparently, the Packers are yelling “that’s not fair” and saying other teams, including the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos, “tampered” with Rodgers by letting him know that they were interested in trading for him. Who cares.
In the saga that is the dramatic unraveling of the relationship between Rodgers and the Packers, general manager Brian Gutekunst should be putting his focus on internal problems instead of worrying about other teams sending smoke signals to the quarterback that has already openly, vocally, said that he wants out of Green Bay.
With the Packers being mad about the tampering rules, it means one of two things — 1) The Packers are the only team in the NFL that doesn’t tamper, or 2) the Packers are giant hypocrites.
According to NFL Communications:
“The purpose of the NFL Anti-Tampering Policy, as it applies to tampering with players, is to protect member clubs’ contract and negotiating rights, and, at the same time, to allow the intra-League competitive systems devised for the acquisition and retention of player talent (e.g., college draft, waiver system, free-agent rules under an operative collective bargaining agreement) to operate efficiently. As the Policy applies to tampering with non-players, its purpose is to strike a balance between protecting the rights and maintaining the organizational stability of employer clubs, and providing realistic advancement opportunities for employees if other clubs desire their services.”
As is the norm, the NFL’s priority is to protect the clubs and the owners, not the athletes. When the NFL MVP is openly saying he wants out of his current situation, I don’t care if John Elway flies out to take him for a nice steak dinner. If these teams expressed interest in Rodgers, they were voicing something that would be common sense to anyone and everyone. It shouldn’t matter in any way if it was direct or indirect communication.
Every team in the NFL would explore the possibility of adding a Super Bowl-winning quarterback coming off an MVP campaign. Of course teams that are in need of a quarterback change want to trade for him. Instead of saying “that’s not fair,” maybe the attention should be placed on doing what’s needed to position your team for success and for another Super Bowl run, as opposed to drafting the guy’s replacement.