Aaron Rodgers offers lousy excuse for offseason drama that was a big reason for trade to Jets
When former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (that feels really weird to type) told the world that he wanted to be traded to the New York Jets, he referenced his lack of communication with Green Bay as one of the main reasons. According to Rodgers, the Packers weren't "direct" with him about their intentions, […]
When former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (that feels really weird to type) told the world that he wanted to be traded to the New York Jets, he referenced his lack of communication with Green Bay as one of the main reasons.
According to Rodgers, the Packers weren't "direct" with him about their intentions, which led to the future Hall of Fame quarterback requesting a trade to the Jets.
After Rodgers made those comments, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst told reporters that he was looking forward to having conversations with Rodgers this offseason, but they never transpired.
"I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron to see how he fit into that," said Gutekunst in late March. "Those never transpired. So there came a time where we had to make some decisions, so we went through his representatives to try to talk to him [about] where were we going with our team. At that point, they informed us that he would like to be traded to the Jets."
On Wednesday, Rodgers was officially introduced by the Jets. And he was asked about his lack of communication with Gutenkunst.
Rodgers told reporters that he lives in a remote area that doesn't have good cell phone reception. As a result, Rodgers said he primarily communicates via FaceTime (which requires internet to work, instead of a cell phone signal).
"I will say, people that know me, I'm fortunate to live in a beautiful house," said Rodgers. "The only downside is I have very limited cell service. So if you want to get a hold of me, I have to see your face. You got to FaceTime me. So the only response to the communication thing is there's records in your phone about who called you…and there weren't any specific FaceTimes for any of those numbers that I was looking at. That's neither here nor there because now we're in this position."
"My point was if there was a change that wanted to be made, why wasn't that told to me earlier in the offseason?" added Rodgers. "Now obviously, my future was undecided at that time. I didn't know if I wanted to keep playing. I wanted to go into my darkness retreat and sit with it and contemplate. But when I came out, it was evident that it was retire or move on to a new team."
That's a pretty lousy excuse. If Rodgers saw that there were texts or voicemails from the Packers, he could've easily returned a call via FaceTime or sent a simple message that said "Hey, hit me up on FaceTime, I don't have good service at the moment". That's typically how adults handle things.
It seems pretty clear that Rodgers knew what he wanted and he's simply using this bizarre FaceTime excuse as a way to throw unnecessary shade at Green Bay's front office.
Good luck, New York. You're probably going to need it.
