There is something beautiful about the way Aaron Rodgers floated above it all Wednesday. With a half million people tuned in to The Pat McAfee Show to hear him talk—largely unchecked and unquestioned—one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history managed to place himself atop the franchise he was leaving behind, saying he intends to play for the Jets, and then quietly shove said franchise onto the pavement just ahead of a steamroller.
This is the vulnerable, tucked-forward position Green Bay has assumed for the past several years with their mercurial star. It has been a willing victim, so long as Rodgers continued to play at an MVP level, and now that the franchise has decided to back out of the relationship, Rodgers would like you all to know who really is to blame.
While there is no moral high ground in the NFL—absolutely anyone who has made it to this level has plotting, scheming and double-crossing sewn into their bloodstream—it was fascinating to watch Rodgers scramble for it as he listed his favorite stores and restaurants in Green Bay and waved goodbye like a graying figurehead in the back of some gold-encrusted carriage.
He said he was not upset about the way his career has ended in Titletown.
He said next that the Packers left the door wide open for his return before a darkness retreat.
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He said next that Green Bay notoriously mistreats its franchise legends on the way out the door and robs them of their dignity.
He said next that he knew his first text coming out of his darkness retreat wouldn’t have been from the Packers begging him to come back because “that wasn’t the sentiment I’d felt throughout the season, even toward the end of the season. It felt like everyone was ready to move on.”
He talked about how great of a kid his successor, Jordan Love, was, only after making sure everyone knew who the franchise’s longest-tenured player was, and who may or may not be the greatest Packer in NFL history. If you’re Love, how do you not interpret that as a slap on the back, followed by a “Good luck, pal!”
While Rodgers eventually recovered and connected the dots, it was hard to follow his version of the story. If he knew, as he said, that Green Bay was always a franchise hell-bent on parting ways a year early, how could this have been a surprise? If he had felt throughout the season that the Packers were preparing to move on, then why was he not ready for them to move on?
I digress, as this sounds a bit like another hypercritical reading of Rodgers, the kind that he has come to despise over the course of his career and the one that he has taken aim at via the bully pulpit. To be honest, it doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t bother you. I think NFL teams are far too comfortable treating people like commodities, and the fact that Rodgers has, directly or indirectly, for self-serving reasons or otherwise, empowered and stood up for some of his fellow players, deserves acknowledgement. The fact that he has not sat idly behind an agent and allowed half-truths about the franchise to be leaked on his behalf is also admirable. So is the fact that he blamed the Packers for holding up the trade—putting them in a position to treat him the way he’s accused them of treating other former players—which may not have helped Rodgers push the trade forward the way he thought it did. But team presidents and owners deserve to sweat just like the rest of us.
I also don’t think the Jets should be scared off by what they’ve seen. As I wrote before, he is the only sensible option for this franchise at this stage in its rebuilding process (especially now that Jimmy Garoppolo has comfortably taken up residence in Las Vegas). Any other quarterback is the equivalent of a surrender punt. It’s the only way to possibly salvage Zach Wilson. And, if there is any franchise that has steeled itself to the possibility of former players taking swings at it via the media, it is the Jets.
But I do think, one day, we should take the Packers’ narrative and Rodgers’s and piece them together just so we understand that absolutely no one is telling the truth. Absolutely everyone is a performer (which can also be said for many, myself included, who take part in this theater as a third party). Sure, both sides may look disparate at first, like the dueling perspectives on Season 1 of The Affair, but maybe one day we’ll uncover the missing pieces and connect all the bones. Maybe one day we’ll have a full skeleton from the closet. The Packers aren’t just moving on from Rodgers because he’s getting old, just like Rodgers isn’t appearing on his own platform and providing a franchise history lesson simply to entertain people while they wait for their book recommendations.
As I said, there is no moral high ground in the NFL. Days like today confirm as much.
