Here's something on the Aaron Rodgers situation

[Hang on, graphics, links & images to follow.]

UPDATE June 14, 2021

So, over the weekend, Green Bay Packers CEO (the functional equivalent of the team's owner) after having stated that the best way to resolve this impasse was for both parties to refrain from public comments made some, um, public comments. "He's a complicated fella. So, I'll just say that." People are focusing on the triggering effect of the "complicated fella" part. Not unreasonable, as the adjective "complicated" isn't being deployed here as a compliment. It's not "He is a man of many and varied interests and areas of interest and expertise, a man of nuance." It's "he's very talented but good grief, what a pain the [anatomical feature of choice here]." 

That's enough for AR to say-without-saying "Y'see the BS I've had to put up with here? Y'see? This - THIS - is what I've been talking about all this time."

But PR damaging enough as that may be for the Packers -- and that's saying a lot as they seem to be an organization Hell-bent on not covering themselves in glory every chance they get -- what I want to focus on is the second, less noted bit: "So, I'll just say that." That's a tremendous multiplier to the first part. It's now no longer "He's very talented but good grief, what a pain the [anatomical feature of choice here]." but rather "He's very talented but good grief, what a pain the [anatomical feature of choice here], and I could tell you lots of even worse things about him."

If the Packers management really wants him back -- I'm having grave doubts -- this is a mighty strange way to proceed, with a "Beatings will continue until morale improves mindset." But I'm slowly coming around to the notion they do not want him back, and will cheerfully make moves out of calculated spite. I mentioned before the Packers are not (and haven't really ever been) aggressively pursuing a Super Bowl win. Sure, they'll take one, but the financial calculation's Goldilocks Spot it to build and maintain a team capable of a deep playoff run but no more. If they get a couple of lucky breaks and win a Super Bow, then yay. A team with a laser focus on a Super Bowl does not, under any circumstance, take a QB in the 1st round of the 2020 draft, and follow up with a running back that won't see action for a couple of years in the 2nd. My guess? They will happily let AR sit out 2021 and then trade him, maximizing his value.

Unless he retires first, in which case they get nothing, and deserve it.

+++++

Yes, I know...this area of discussion is new for this blog. Hang in there, it's going to be fine.

I have been following the Aaron Rodgers/Packers saga for years. By virtue of this I have been following what the sports media/punditry has been saying during that span of time. So here's my take.

Aaron Rodgers (AR) considers himself the best quarterback of all time. He may too aware to state this out loud, but it's true.

[PICTURE OF AR HERE]

So then he asks himself the painful question: "If I'm so sensational, why, in 16 years, do I not have more than one Super Bowl ring?" The answer, to his mind -- and in my view a not unreasnable one -- is that the team's management isn't particularly interested in winning Super Bowls. Sure, they'll take one, but they aren't all that hopped up about building such a team. They are perfecrtly happy with a team that can go deep-ish into the playoffs and, het, if they get lucky a couple of times and win the whole thing then...hooray. This is a team that has had two hall-of-fame QBs and has managed to win a measly two Super Bowls in a quarter century.

Anyway, to a guy like AR, heading to the last segment of his career, the legacy (read: championships) becomes far more important than money. And he has zero confidence the team he is currently on is purpose-built to win. When a new coach was hired, the team President (functionally the equivalent of the team owner) was reported to have told him: "Don't you be the problem." More than once he has gone to management with suggestions and been rebuffed along the lines of "Shut up and play."

This sort of thing, to a guy like AR who is convinced he is the most intelligent guy in the room, is/was a bridge burning move of Dresden-esque proportions. In his mind -- in my view, again, not an unreasonable take -- he wants to make moves to win championships, and the team management isn't quit as all-in. To someone like him, this is an unbridgeable chasm.

But say, someone reaches out to AR and says, "No, really, we want to win championships with you and we'll do what it takes. Just watch." He'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Once. So when the NFL draft comes and the team, without conveying this in any way to AR, trades up to draft a replacement QB (Jordan Love), this has to rankle AR. Hard. Not only are they not making moves to shore up what he views are weak spots in the roster, they draft his replacement without so much as a courtesy call. In his mind this screams: "This team is not serious about winning championships, say what they might."

So he wants out. Only the team doesn't want him out. He wants to leave to go win a championship with some other team eager for Super Bowl trophies, and they want him to stay so the team can remain at the "we're very competitive" level they'd rather stay. Impasse.

The punditry, of course, is speaking in terms of which side has leverage and which side is turning the heat up, etc.

So let me place a shiny li'l marker here. AR is not going to go back to play "for these people." On that he is resolute and immovable. Exterior factors ("the fan base is divided!") don't especially register in his mind. He will happily sit out a season without so much as a backward glance. That management views this as a bluff on AR's part that it needs to call only underscore how little they understand and appreciate his contribution over the last 16 years.

Furthermore it makes one's right eyebrow rocket upward when they say they are "working on fixing the situation." Right now the management has exactly two options: Trade AR, or change his mind. Yes, there are things they could do to change his mind and fix this but...they are psychologically incapable of doing those things. They could have traded for Julio Jones, they could shore up any number of weak spots on their roster, they could apologize and own up to their management style that has antagonized AR. But they won't. They (psychologically) can't.

They will be shocked when their approach resoundingly fails to produce the desired results. On that day, I will tell you that I haven't seen so many people so shocked since the end of The Crying Game.