Image courtesy of Vikings.com
On this week’s episode of our KDLM radio show/flagship podcast, ‘The VikingsTerritory Breakdown’ we (Joe Oberle, guest and our newest contributor Sally Haag, and me) discussed the fact that with each episode the news out of Green Bay concerning Aaron Rodgers was getting worse and worse. With that, our delight was increasing in some sort of inverted relationship graph similar to the amount of weight I’ve gained in pounds lowering my chances of finding a wife by an equivalent percentage.
VT Breakdown co-host Joe Oberle disagreed with Haag and I that the team had mishandled things from the jump by not informing Rodgers that they were drafting his replacement as a courtesy the same way the Vikings reportedly gave Kirk “Not Aaron Rodgers” Cousins the same courtesy before drafting Kellen Mond in April.
As I said on the show, any time your superstar QB reacts to a move by blacking out on a bottle of tequila, someone screwed up somewhere.
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Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse or more mishandled, Packers president Mark Murphy said the following about Rodgers. Or rather, said that former Packers general manager Ted Thompson had said the following, which he apparently agreed with:
“[Thompson] often talked about Aaron, that he’s a … and it wasn’t just Aaron, a lot of different players. He would say ‘He’s a complicated fella,’” Murphy said. “So, I’ll just say that,” Murphy said.
Now, if your goal is to mend fences and bring your reigning MVP quarterback back into the fold after things, as stated above point out, seem to be getting worse by the day… This move definitely is the opposite of doing that. In fact, it’s such a strange thing to say under the context that you have wonder what the hell is going on in Wisconsin.
The Packers can’t trade Rodgers this season, as they’d end up paying tens of millions of dollars for him to play elsewhere. They also went to the NFC Championship game last year and Rodgers, again, was the MVP. Meaning that you’d think they’d want to make things better to gear up for a Super Bowl run.
Either something else is going on here we don’t yet know about or the management in Green Bay is going to go down as some of the most hapless in sports history. That’s coming from the owner of the largest Vikings news network who thinks that Rodgers might be a serial killer.
Either way, this is all just delightful for the Vikings and the fans of said Vikings, not just because it’s hilarious but because it makes the Vikings essentially a shoe-in for the 2021 NFC North championship. That is, of course, unless Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields bursts out of the gate like a horse owned by Bob Baffert.
That wouldn’t be ideal, but as long as the Packers continue to implode we’d have the best consolation prize since I was friend-zoned by my crush in high school but it turned out she had Vikings season tickets and both strains of herpes. Herpes’? Herpi?
That’s not to say that Rodgers isn’t a complicated fella or that that in and of itself is a gigantic insult. But it does imply that this is all Rodgers’ fault, and if he responds to the drafting of the QB of the future by chugging the worst of all types of liquor or his brother being on ‘The Bachelor’ by making TV commercials/hosting Jeopardy with the charisma of fellow Wisconsinite Jeffrey Dahmer, or getting his collar bone broken on a routine tackle by going on ‘Conan’ and pretending that Anthony Barr Tanya Harding’d him?
How do they think this complicated fella will respond to this tidbit?
I’ll venture a guess. By moving even further away from playing in 2021 and most likely guest hosting ‘The Price is Right’, “How much does this reigning MVP’s team value him?”
$1!
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Lest we forget the history involved here, Rodgers previously threw his coach under the bus and got him fired, and now he is trying to throw the GM under the bus also. Apparently Rodgers goal is to become the owner, or at least have all the power of an owner. Both the Packers and Rodgers signed a multi year contract and now Rodgers is refusing to abide by what he had committed to.
If teams don't enforce these long term commitments, then the contracts will become meaningless and it won't be just the Prima Donna's that won't comply, it will be all the players. So this situation isn't just about Rodgers throwing another hissy fit, it is about the future of the NFL and whether contracts have any meaning. Without long term contracts that have meaning and purpose, then the NFL will be totally run on a daily basis and where players play will be a musical chairs game.
So the situation is very basic. Either Rodgers complies with his long term contract or commitment, or he doesn't. If he chooses to sit out the year, he will owe repayment of millions of dollars of up front money. Each year of the contract stands on its own, and the Packers will again have the option to trade Rodgers next year or Rodgers has the option to sit the year out again. Whatever happens will be dictated by the contracts that both have signed, its as simple as that.
The Packers are at a cross road. If they cave into Rodgers demands again, then contracts for all players are meaningless. If they simply enforce the contract, then this flood of star players trying to force their demands will end, and the NFL can get back to playing football.
I think people are missing important aspects of this. Rodgers ALREADY got one coach fired. Now he is trying to have the organization leaders fired. Basically because they DON'T LET HIM TELL THEM HOW TO DO THEIR JOBS. They have the rights to draft who they want, that IS THEIR JOB, and they don't have to ask him permission. Juat remember, we are dealing with a player who jumped through hoops to have a successful coach fired, and for that matter he won't talk to his family either. He obviously has interpersonal relationship issues. I am impressed that the CEO stands by his people and employees and doesn't let the famous people run other team employees out of town, and decide who is holy enough to talk to him, or who is unworthy (his family and prior coaches).