It’s not often that breaking up with a good player helps to get rid of it, but it’s hard not to feel that the Green Bay Packers moving on from Aaron Rodgers will be the same.
As insufferable as Rodgers is in the safe space provided by friends Pat McAfee and AJ Hawk in McAfee’s eponymous show, is he even worse behind closed doors?
For about an hour Wednesday afternoon, Rodgers sang his classic song, the one of the narcissist in the title whining about how disrespected he’s been by the franchise he’s held for the past two years with maybe-i-will, maybe-I. – will not drink milk. The same franchise wants to pay him $60 million for the 2023 season.
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Not 10 minutes after his appearance with McAfee and Hawk, after leaving the details of his departure in the dark, Rodgers launched into his list of grievances, complaining that the office the Packers who drafted him in 2005 weren’t the only front office that had the guts to draft what they hoped would be his replacement, Jordan Love, in 2020.
He called people out and people there now, who clearly didn’t get the memo that Aaron King’s ego comes before anything else in Green Bay, continuity plans be damned. the quarterback.
They look like Oscar winners reading the required ID as they cling to their gilded statues, probably because Rodgers is nothing but a drama.
This is nothing new for Rodgers. He has been the Baron of Bellyache since he took the 24th overall in his plan, a bit deranged to remind anyone, anywhere, of the terrible injustice of the time and still remains, almost twenty years.
Don’t forget that Joe Montana, who won four Super Bowls, was a third-rounder and Tom Brady, who won six Super Bowls with one team and added seven in his first year with the new good team, is sixth. – pick round and looked at six quarterbacks drafted before him.
Rodgers watched one.
Which coincidentally, they have the same number of Super Bowl rings.
That’s it. That has been the case for a long time.
The King of Complaints. The Duke of Condemnation.
Top quarterbacks are demanding of their teammates and, in many ways, of their franchise leaders; no one says they aren’t. The difference is that most elite quarterbacks keep their displeasure behind closed doors and work to build teammates even when knocking them around in practice or in the heat of the game. Good leaders know that they cannot do it alone.
Lord Lambeau, however, has shown time and time again that he will blame everyone else for his own selfish pursuits. Known for being aggressive with young receivers, tearing up last year’s results in front of reporters during training camp. Later last season, on McAfee’s show, he thought that maybe some of his teammates should be cut because they haven’t been playing.
The Packers seem to have done a lot over the years to appease Rodgers, and for all his insistence Wednesday that he loves the franchise and its fans, he couldn’t help but tell McAfee and Hawk said: “You have an old face. the franchise but it’s time to do the right thing,” although he told them earlier in the interview that he was “90 percent” sure that he was done playing a few weeks ago that.
But now he’s upset the Packers didn’t trade him sooner.
Rodgers will be the Jets’ problem when they give in to Green Bay’s trade demands (although by declaring he wants to play for New York, it’s arguable that he’s giving the Packers a chance to use him ). There was report on Monday, the soon-to-be king has been playing as general manager at the Meadowlands, asking the receivers and the last ones who want to see the team’s signature. (Rodgers denied making such a claim in an interview with McAfee.)
The Jets have some solid young receivers on the roster, but they’re too deep with Rodgers to back down now, and they reportedly signed Allen Lazard away from the Packers to a four-year deal to try to calm him down. Wouldn’t a great quarterback do that to a new guy instead of backing down to the comfort of an older, and more likely to be more receptive to his wishes, teammates?
At some point, the Jets will give up several draft picks, take on Rodgers’ contract, and sign some of their draftees. Will it pay off in the form of a postseason appearance? AFC Champions? Super Bowl?
Will it blow up, especially when the notoriously sensitive Rodgers gets in front of the New York media? Will he even play two seasons before deciding to retire?
With the Don of Drama reigning in the NFL, there is no way to predict how things will turn out. Either way, the Packers won’t be trying to calm him down anymore.