A couple weeks ago, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers made an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" and outlined his interpretation of how the last couple months have gone and what the future now holds.
Aaron Rodgers maybe didn't tell us the whole story. Are you shocked?
The soon-to-be-former Packers quarterback said two weeks ago he loves direct communication, but one prominent Green Bay executive says Rodgers was unavailable for it.
March 28, 2023 at 11:58PM
It was fairly entertaining theater, relatively informative and, to be sure, helped fill in further the character sketch of Rodgers (updated quite well in The Ringer).
Rodgers aired some grievances with how the offseason played out, saying that he believed the Packers told him one thing and then proceeded differently, which ultimately led him to decide he wants to play for the Jets (trade still pending, though possibly not completed before the summer).
If the Packers had just come to him when the offseason began, told him how much they loved him, and they said they were ready to move on, Rodgers would have appreciated it, he said.
"I wish that in the beginning of the offseason that had been the conversation, because I love direct communication," Rodgers said.
The only problem, according to Packers GM Brian Gutekunst this week? Rodgers didn't really make himself available for direct communication.
"I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron to see how he fit into that. Those never transpired," Gutekunst said at the league meetings in Phoenix, and as I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Gutekunst attributed the lack of dialogue to "our inability to reach him or for him to respond in any way" and said the Packers eventually went through Rodgers' representatives and were told he wanted to be traded to the Jets.
That's quite a different picture than the one Rodgers painted, and it's interesting that Gutekunst would offer that perspective given that a trade for Rodgers still has yet to be consummated.
If anything, though, it confirms just how fractured the relationship between the four-time MVP and the Packers has become — and perhaps solidifies Green Bay's resolve in moving forward with Jordan Love instead of Rodgers.
Assuming what Gutekunst said is accurate, I will be curious to see if the war of words escalates whenever Rodgers is asked about the GM's response.
Because we already know that Rodgers is neither immune nor vaccinated from making sure we know his version a story.
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