Rodgers Returns, But What Did He Get?
Aaron, by all reports, wanted out of Green Bay, and had for some time. I am still not sure about the “wanting out” part of the reporting, but I do know he had issues there, yes. There appeared to be no one in the Packers front office for whom Aaron felt as a “point person,” someone he could shoot the breeze with about things beyond football and talk to openly and honestly. I have spoken before about the Packers’ tradition of “football guys” running the operation, with great talent in player evaluation but deficiencies in communication and people skills. Although I was clearly a minority in this thinking, I always believed the Packers should be more communicative publicly, as I have always seen them as somewhat of a public trust, but they are not. And I think that filters down to player communications.
Aaron is a person that gets set on something and it is hard to convince him otherwise. He can put people, as he phrased it to me many years ago, “on blast” and it appeared he had put the Packers front office “on blast.” It also appeared deeper than money; were it about money—adding future guarantees, bumping up his salary, etc.—it would have been resolved in a day. It seemed personal, an accumulation of disrespect—whether perceived or real was not really important —from the Packers. And face-to-face visits from the coach, general manager and the president of the team, which is the right response from the team, yielded no resolution.
When the Packers drafted Love, I said two things: 1) we had an expiration date on Aaron and the Packers (what I have always thought to be 2022); and 2) the Packers would have to manage this situation, as we did many years ago with Brett Favre in Aaron’s current role and Aaron in Love’s role, and that’s not easy. It is challenging managing a situation with no specific transfer point and competing interests on each side. And it appeared the Packers had not managed this well.
Aaron is not blameless here, but superstars like Aaron drive the product; they move the needle; they merit special treatment. The Packers seemed to be stuck in a pattern of treating everyone the same and not making special allowances for anyone, even Aaron, and that was coming home to roost. It is the world we live in; sports is a star-driven business and stars have to be treated with great care and attention. Adapt or die.
I have said for months that the Packers weren’t trading Aaron in 2021, that Aaron can’t trade himself, that he wouldn’t retire, that the Packers would make some kind of financial or other accommodation to have Aaron play this year and that he would be traded in 2022. I believe this is on track.
Deadlines spurred action (sound familiar) and after all the angst and breathless reporting of Aaron’s discontent, he is going to play this season for the Packers. There are reported “concessions” made to Aaron, with some information on them, although still awaiting the details.
In recent weeks and even as recently as Sunday, I advanced a potential resolution that both sides would hate, but often the most distasteful deals are the ones that get done. It would have had the Packers granting Aaron a void, an ability to get out of the contract—as the Patriots gave to Tom Brady a couple years back—after this season (2021). It would be distasteful to the Packers as they would get no trade compensation in 2022. It would be distasteful to Aaron because if he wanted out of Green Bay as bad as it seemed. But maybe, I posited, the mutual distaste could make it work. It was food for thought.
According to reports, there was a meeting of the minds between the Packers and Aaron in this way I advanced, with a void. But, surprisingly to me, the void is after 2022, not after 2021. Thus, the Packers would retain the ability to garner trade compensation for Aaron next year after riding his expected MVP-level play this year. To me, this seems like a win for the Packers. Their plan, in my mind, has always been to play Aaron this year and move to Love next year. My sense was that Aaron was not down with that and perhaps he even suggested to just move the calendar up a year and trade him now, which the Packers have resisted all along. But alas, the Packers will have their wish: Aaron as both MVP and placeholder for Jordan Love.
Another concession that was reported was some kind of review of the situation after this year, despite the void not being until after next year. What does that mean? Well, to me, that means Aaron will be traded and have major input into where he is traded. And according to reports the Packers, at Aaron’s request, will be bringing back Randall Cobb to the team; a step, although not a huge ask from the team.
Again, my strong sense is that the Packers plan was to move to Love in 2022, next year. And their plan is intact.
I am left scratching my head as to what Aaron accomplished here but maybe it was the reporting, not Aaron’s discontent, that was over the top. Wasn’t Aaron, according to reports, “done with Green Bay”? And now he is committed there another year, perhaps even two, for getting a void in 2023 and Randall Cobb? Really?
I guess what all of this means is what I have said all along: There is a limit to player empowerment, even for the elite of the elite, in the NFL. Aaron is a true superstar, but in a sport still tilted towards management. He is not James Harden or Anthony Davis; this is not the NBA. The superstars have some power in the NFL, but the teams have more, a lot more. Heck, it took 20 years for Tom Brady to “get out” of New England and exert some level of power. As I say often, the only true driver of player power in team sports is free agency, and NFL teams prevent that well with long-term contracts (which Aaron had) and the franchise tag. NBA superstars always hit free agency; NFL superstars virtually never do.
Maybe one day we will have true player empowerment in the NFL, where A-listers like Aaron can truly force teams’ hands in a way that did not happen here. But that day is not today. As great as players like Aaron are, the winning side of the business of football is still the team side.
