go pak go wrote: ↑06 May 2021 14:14
paco wrote: ↑06 May 2021 14:08
Acrobat wrote: ↑06 May 2021 14:02
So essentially, this whole thing might be overblown. Good god. The pure shock that Dan Patrick had at all of this was pretty amazing.
Its certainly not completely overblown as the Packers have made statements and haven't denied everything. Not all the talk out there is false. But hopefully, it is less of a big deal that its been made to look. Time will tell. This doesn't have to get resolved any time soon, and I suspect it will take a bit yet.
I remember the body language in MLF's face.
It didn't look overblown to me.
Right, let's not spike the football yet.
It's been confirmed that the team has been making visits out there to convince him.
Rodgers, himself, has said almost nothing but what he DID say was "I didn't want this to get out," not "this isn't true."
Gutey and MLF and Mark Murphy have all admitted they don't know how this will end and they have all talked to him.
James Jones and John Kuhn and Brett Favre said they've talked to him and one said "my gut says he's done" one said "Rodgers is conflicted" and one said "I think there's a solution."
This isn't over, and it's not overblown. But the TIMING of it, and the speculation that it was a strategic bomb planted by one side or the other to embarrass the other is now called into question. Personally, that Shefter, who is on television every day discussing this very topic, waited until now to "clarify" the timing and sourcing strikes me more as a backpedal than a "this wasn't ever a particularly big deal"
It 100% makes me suuuper angry at Shefter for how he went about breaking the story and the week that has followed. But it doesn't absolve Rodgers for actually staying away (remember the voluntary offseason program is occurring virtually right now without him), nor for still not speaking publicly about any of it. If he just said "look, right now I'm still not sure what my future holds, but no one is trying to get anyone fired and I've been on contact with the team and we're still trying to see if there's a solution" that alone would have, at least, slowed this down while not refuting anything or abandoning any leverage.
I think there is no denying that the public reaction to this story and the continued leaks of some of Rodgers' alleged behaviors and statements have forced a damage control effort to be enacted. There's no way Kuhn and Jones and Shefter all come out with statements downplaying the events and expressing hopes on THE SAME DAY by accident. And it's been a week. And no one else has made those statements.
This is still real; it's still live; and like I said at the very beginning and have mostly stuck to (even though I played with trades I would accept or welcome) the team has absolutely no need to or desire to trade Rogders this offseason. The most logical time, even if he's unhappy or holding out, isn't until after next year's draft order is set. And the leverage all favors the team. So none of this is particularly surprising, but it also doesn't mean that, had the public reaction and media environment and even the team reaction gone differently, we wouldn't see this continue to escalate.
There's a world in which Gutey gets in front of the media and says "Aaron Rodgers is under contract for three more years with the Green Bay Packers and the only leverage he has is to make you all ask me annoying questions. If he wants to play football, it will be for the Green Bay Packers and if he doesn't want to honor his contract, it's next man up and we'll at least save a ton of money and cap space."
If that was the team stance, Rodgers and Gutey would remain in a cycle of ego escalation.