A respected NFL journalist reported Monday that Aaron Rodgers is feeling “discontent” toward Packers management, with the negative feelings emerging just as he is engaging in talks about a possible contract extension. The Green Bay quarterback responded Tuesday by mocking the report as “click bait” and making a point of telling another NFL journalist that he knows his “role,” which is “to play quarterback.”
Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports had cited “two league sources familiar with the quarterback’s mind-set,” who said Rodgers was “frustrated” and “emotional” over some of the Packers’ recent personnel moves, notably the release of veteran wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who signed with the Raiders, and the departure of quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt to take the same position with the Bengals.
“I know he’s thinking about that stuff when it comes to the next contract because he should have earned a voice by now,” Robinson reported a source saying to him about Rodgers. “In other places with [elite] quarterbacks, consideration is given to those guys. I think Aaron wants to be engaged in some decisions. But that’s just not the way it works [in Green Bay].
“I think that’s obviously frustrating and it’s going to keep coming out.”
Rodgers offered a rebuttal of sorts to the Packers’ official website, possibly reflecting an interest in being seen as a team player, in a very literal sense. He told the website’s Mike Spofford there is “more than mutual interest on both sides” in completing a new pact. Spofford reported that while Rodgers “wasn’t happy” about the decisions to part ways with Nelson and Van Pelt, the quarterback “did not come across Tuesday as disgruntled, instead referring multiple times to being ‘professional’ about it all in preparation for a new season.”
“I know my role and that’s to play quarterback the best that I can,” Spofford quoted Rodgers as saying, “and the team is going to try to put the right guys in place, the right coaches in place, the right players in place, and you just have to trust the process.”
When the Packers posted the story on Twitter, with the headline, “Aaron Rodgers talks offseason changes,” Rodgers retweeted it and made fun of the prosaic wording. By jokingly complaining that “the title of this article needs more click bait,” and adding that the website needed to “make something up, or talk to some unnamed sources close to me or something to beef up the clicks,” the two-time NFL MVP was clearly referring to previous items written about him, and in the case of Robinson’s report, one in particular.
In his retweet, Rodgers included a hashtag that mentioned “fake news,” as well as one that suggested everyone “relax,” an allusion to his famous advice to Green Bay fans after a slow start to the 2014 season. “Five letters here just for everybody out there in Packer-land: R-E-L-A-X,” he said at the time, and sure enough, he led the team to a 12-4 season and a berth in the NFC title game.
Rodgers, now 34, was offering similar advice Tuesday, and to help nervous Packers fans reach a peaceful state of “total consciousness,” he referred to a recent visit with the Dalai Lama. Calling the Tibetan spiritual leader a “fan” of the Packers, Rodgers subsequently posted on Instagram a photo of their meeting, adding the caption, “So we got this going for us …. which is nice.”
In his report, Robinson noted that Rodgers is in the sixth year of a seven-year deal that now makes him relatively underpaid, given his outstanding play and the lucrative contracts recently handed out to the likes of Matthew Stafford, Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins. Robinson wrote that the Packers have “no driving inventive to lavish a record-breaking contract” on Rodgers, because they can place the franchise tag on him for a couple of seasons after his deal expires, which would help them avoid an expensive long-term commitment as the quarterback heads into his late 30s.
Because the Packers can effectively keep Rodgers in Green Bay for four more years, he “lacks the contract leverage” to demand a greater say in decisions made by the team, according to Robinson. In his comments to packers.com, Rodgers made sure to note that he intends to play until he is “40 and beyond,” and he emphasized a philosophical outlook on losing teammates — almost as if a certain someone had enlightened him on the central Buddhist concept of impermanence.
“Many of the guys I’m playing with now will be moving on at that point, if I’m able to keep playing until then,” Rodgers said. “It’s about cultivating the relationships with the young guys, finding what that team chemistry looks like every year — because it changes — and looking forward to the season.”
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