It’s too late for Aaron Rodgers to play down the fuse he deliberately lit

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers spontaneously gave all sports media a multi-day talking point on Sunday, spontaneously raising the vague question of whether he had played his last game in the Packers’ uniform. Rodgers attempted to remove it on Tuesday.

It’s too late for that.

“Lots of futures from guys who are, you know, uncertain, including me,” Rodgers said, in response to a question that had nothing to do with his future. Rodgers later said that “[t]there are a lot of unknowns in this offseason, ”without identifying any of the unknowns.

His comments have made several seasoned reporters who cover the team feel something sinister about Rodgers’ words. For example, Jason Wilde of ESPN Wisconsin, who knows Rodgers very well, said that Rodgers “sounded like a guy saying goodbye. “

In its regular appearance on Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers tried to say goodbye to any speech he said goodbye.

“After the season that I had, potentially MVP, and we obviously had another good race, I don’t think there’s a reason I wouldn’t be back,” said Rodgers. “But there aren’t many absolutes, as you know, in this business. To make an absolute statement on something that is not an absolute, I didn’t.

But during his final press conference for the 2019 season, Rodgers strongly hinted at an absolute statement on his status for 2020 when he said this after a loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship: “The window is open for us. , and that’s the exciting thing. . I think we’re going to be on the safe side of one of them soon.

The difference, of course, is that the Packers drafted quarterback Jordan Love in April, dropping a first-round pick and a fourth-round pick to get him. Entering the 2021 offseason after a stellar 2020 year, Rodgers has every right to want some clarification on his future with the team given his deliberate decision not to have the opportunity to add weapons during adding a quarterback.

Are the Packers considering another year? Two more years? Three? Will Love eventually become the starter, or will he be traded, as Jimmy Garoppolo was in New England, in season four after arriving as a potential replacement for Tom Brady?

Rodgers wants a new contract. With the intention of never angering the Packers fans, he’ll act like he doesn’t. But he does. Because a new contract will give him the clarity he is looking for. Alternatively, refusing to give him that contract will bring another kind of clarity – and that will likely prompt Rodgers to start planning a future with a new team, perhaps in 2021 but more likely in 2022.

Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson, who confirmed Rodgers wanted a new contract during an appearance on Peacock’s Tuesday Brother of another, made an excellent point regarding the dilemma created for journalists and analysts when Rodgers uses press conferences or other public settings to send messages. Any reporter who notices the message and dares to articulate it ends up being herded by Rodgers into a bucket of rattling and troublemakers who suddenly don’t know what they’re talking about.

I was here. During the 2016 season, Rodgers repeatedly raised concerns directly related to coach Mike McCarthy. Rodgers cited a “lack of juice” in a home loss to the Colts, explaining that the sideline lacked “the same kind of enthusiasm and encouragement.” After giving up 47 points in a loss to the Titans, Rodgers said, “There has to be this healthy fear as a player that if you don’t do your job, they’ll get rid of you.

While Rodgers never linked these concerns to McCarthy’s training for the team, I did. History has proven this interpretation to be correct. My reward, of course, was for Rodgers to complain to his locker about reporters who interpreted his comments as complaints about McCarthy.

“Mostly guys like Mike Florio,” Rodgers said. “Don’t waste your time reading bullshit like that.”

Despite the fact that no good deed goes unpunished when it comes to Aaron Rodgers, I repeat: he wants and deserves clarity about his future. He wants and deserves to know that he’s more than a year-over-year option. And if he finds out he’s an option from year to year (via a refusal to give him a new contract that cements the relationship until 2022 or 2023), that’s when he’ll want and will deserve to start planning his next move.

Then when he sends incomparable messages and journalists and analysts notice and react to him, he can dust off Steve Urkel’s slogan and tell people not to waste their time reading or listening to bullshit like that.