Countdown to high noon - Will Rodgers show up?
doubledragon
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in Sports Talk
It's getting close to the final showdown between one Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, the players are scheduled to report to training camp on Tuesday July 27th with the first practice on Wednesday July 28th. It's been a long and drama filled saga, and it's just about time for the showdown. The Packers can hit Rodgers with fines next week if he doesn't show up, and the suspense is building and I can't wait to see who will be left standing when the cheese smoke clears.
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Very interesting, a few major sports books think that Aaron Rodgers is going to retire before trainung camp starts.
Multiple sportsbooks believe Aaron Rodgers' retirement is imminent.
Will Aaron Rodgers retire before training camp? Sportsbooks seem to think so.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the reigning NFL MVP, but a soured relationship with the front office might cut his career short even as he clearly has multiple great years left in him.
That is, if the actions of multiple sportsbooks are to be believed. SI.com’s Bill Huber reported Friday that Westgate SuperBook took down all its NFC North markets, and that two other sportsbooks he was in touch with think Rodgers will retire sometime before the Packers’ first training-camp practice on Wednesday.
Here was a key excerpt from Huber’s article: “Two other sportsbooks contacted after that initial message [with Westgate SuperBook] said the expectation is Rodgers is going to announce his retirement sometime before the first practice on Wednesday.”
Rodgers stands to get fined a lot of money if he continually misses training-camp practices, so it’s very possible that he makes the power play of announcing his retirement. Whether that means he’s truly done playing or it’s a way to simply avoid playing for the Packers ever again remains to be seen.
Again, that’s if it comes to pass. Maybe Rodgers will put aside his differences with the front office, stave off the Jordan Love era for one more season and get traded next offseason.
Heck, he could even get moved at the NFL trade deadline. It’d be rare for such a prominent player to be moved during the season, yet this is a very unique set of circumstances, and it could happen.
I haven't been paying much attention to this story. A lot of times, if I'm interested, I will try to dig into the local opinions on something like this. But I haven't. Does anyone know how the real Cheeseheads feel about this?
I just did a little digging, and he is playing this year in GB but this will be his last year with the Packers. @Doubledragon You can take this info to the bank!!
Howdy pilgrim, and welcome to the Rodgers vs Packers showdown thread! To answer your question, I think the Packers fans are growing tired of Mr. Rodgers drama, but I imagine he does still have supporters out there. Some if the fans have grown so tired of Rodgers, that a bar in Wisconsin named a beer after him.
I can't wait to see if he shows, if he has the guts!
He's playing one more year in GB. And then he will be off to greener, wilder pastures.
You may be right, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams both posted this photo on Instagram, so maybe they're going to play together one last season before Rodgers leaves Green Bay.
And here's Rodgers Instagram post.
Just what is Rodgers really thinking in that sick, twisted, overly sensitive mind.
I think he is retiring or at least done in GB. If he is done than no way Adam's is signing a long term contract.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
shows up. suffers career ending injury in the first game of the season. doesnt fumble though.
And now it's time for a old west tough guy meme.
I swear, Aaron Rodgers is such a baby, he's the problem that just won't go away. He's worse than those door to door religious solicitors.
This is sports forum news reporter Double D reporting the latest developments in the Aaron Rodgers saga, this photo was posted by Aaron Rodgers on Instagram yesterday and it is a photo of Rodgers working out in California with Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari and Rodgers posted the message "Classic pic of workout @davidbakhtiari. Never stop talking" with the photo. We'll bring you more news on the Aaron Rodgers saga as it develops, for now, this is sports forum news reporter Double D signing off.
There he goes, Rodgers is messing with our heads again!
He's messing with our heads, he's playing mindgames with us, don't turn your back on him, he's plotting something!
And now, an old west tough guy meme.
No, I see no similarities here!
Go ahead Rodgers, post your next mind games photo on Instagram, draw your phone pilgrim!
Meanwhile in Green Bay....
Oh, oh!
Pretty big Packer fan here who reads most of the local Packer beat writers. I don't think anyone really has a clue on what is going to happen next week, except for Rodgers himself. I don't see him retiring...he is just too competitive not to play. The Packers say they are not trading him, and a trade at this point makes no sense. So, that leaves he doesn't retire and plays for the Packers. I personally think he reports but that is just a wild guess.
He could have at least gotten the right color nametag.
I think he plays this year as a Packer as well. But he might try to make a statement by being late.
Hey cheezeheads, don't you think that it's getting a little LATE for Rodgers and the Packers to kiss and make up ??
That ship sailed.
Edit: as usual, failed to proof read.
I say he retires for a year
Oh, now Usain Bolt is begging Rodgers not to leave the Packers in this video.
George Kittle got in on the saga, he poked fun at Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams by posting this photo. Of course, this is a jab at the Jordan and Pippen photos that Rodgers and Adams posted on Instagram.
And sounds like Davante Adams is not happy either.
I’m sure he wants nothing to do with GB without Rodgers, or he is just trying to help Rodgers out by being difficult
Well, it looks like Rodgers is going to play for Green Bay in 2021, his plane landed in Green Bay yesterday, and the Packers are working out a deal with him.
Aaron Rodgers Is Reportedly Returning to the Packers—Perhaps for One Last Dance
The Packers have reached an agreement with Rodgers that will bring the QB back for at least the 2021 season, according to reports. It includes greater say on personnel moves, a removal of the final year of his contract, and … the freedom to leave as early as 2022.
Aaron Rodgers is going back to Green Bay. That’s what ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Monday after three months of uncertainty about whether Rodgers would ever play for the Packers again. Rodgers had reportedly been unhappy about a variety of things—from Green Bay drafting his replacement, to not being secured as the team’s future starter after he won MVP, to the Packers cutting Jake Kumerow (really). But Schefter said that Rodgers and the team have reached a tentative compromise on some of their differences, and the QB will report to training camp.
To entice Rodgers back, the Packers reportedly made a few concessions, including lopping off the final year of his current deal (it will now end after the 2022 season instead of 2023). The team also agreed not to use the franchise tag at the end of his contract, and that if Rodgers “wants to be traded [after the 2021 season], the team will acquiesce to his wishes,” according to Schefter. Put all of that together and Rodgers will stick it out at least one more year in Green Bay, then have the freedom to leave, either via a trade in 2022 or free agency in 2023.
On Friday night, Rodgers and star Packers receiver Davante Adams posted the same photo to their Instagram stories. It showed Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen fist-bumping during their time together with the Bulls.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the reference: Rodgers may see this season as his Last Dance in Green Bay.
Rodgers has certainly been unhappy with the Packers front office over the past year, especially general manager Brian Gutekunst. It started during the 2020 draft, when the team traded up to draft Jordan Love—Rodgers’s heir apparent—without telling him. Then in September, Green Bay released Kumerow just days after Rodgers had publicly praised the receiver, which NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said made Rodgers even more upset (apparently we’re in the timeline where Jake Kumerow alters the NFL universe). When Rodgers responded by winning MVP and leading the Packers to a 13-3 season and the NFC Championship game, the team refused to commit to him as the starter beyond 2021 (the Packers reportedly offered Rodgers a contract that would have made him the league’s highest-paid player, but that money was not guaranteed). While Rodgers was upset, there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Rodgers missed offseason practices and mandatory minicamp, but skipping training camp would have gotten expensive—fast. If he held out for the entire month of August, Rodgers would have been fined about $2 million. And if he skipped the season, he would have forfeited his $15 million salary and the Packers could have asked him to pay back roughly $23 million of his signing bonus. Perhaps a player who has made $241 million in salary alone in his career (plus that State Farm money) could stomach that. But it’s not just about money. Rodgers’s absence would have hung his teammates out to dry, changed how millions of Packers fans perceived him, and delayed his chance at a second Super Bowl ring until 2022—a tough pill to swallow for a QB turning 38 this season.
Then there’s the fact that Green Bay had little reason to trade Rodgers this offseason. Competitively, the Packers need Rodgers in order to be a Super Bowl contender in 2021. That is obvious. Less obvious is the money the Packers would have lost in a trade. Had Green Bay dealt Rodgers before June 2, the team would have eaten so much dead money ($38 million) that it would have used roughly 20 percent of its 2021 budget on Rodgers while he played for a different team. A trade becomes much more palatable next offseason, when dealing will only waste about 10 percent of the team’s budget—and that figure will likely be even lower once we learn the details of the restructured deal the two sides have reportedly agreed on. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap said when asked whether Rodgers would show up: “The ball was in Aaron’s court.”
The timing of trading Rodgers this year also never made sense. Rodgers’s request went mega public the morning of the first round of the draft, and it is difficult for teams to pull together a franchise-altering deal in mere hours. Once the draft was over, there was even less incentive for the Packers to move him. If Green Bay had traded Rodgers this summer, his new team would likely have been a contender in 2021. But any contender would deliver the Packers draft picks way outside the top 10. Waiting until after the season means Green Bay knows exactly which picks they will get in a trade—not to mention it gives other teams months to plan for a megadeal.
But Green Bay also needed to do something to ensure Rodgers would show up. Rodgers’s run hosting Jeopardy! and his legendary grudge-holding abilities led to rumors that he could retire rather than return to the Packers. But if Rodgers didn’t come to training camp, everyone involved was going to lose. So the team made some concessions—one of which, according to Schefter, was that “mechanisms will be put in place to address Rodgers’ issues with the team.”
What on God’s green earth does that mean? That Gutekunst will have to remain 50 feet from Rodgers at all times? Maybe. More likely though is that Green Bay is giving Rodgers more input on personnel. In addition to the Love pick last year, many of the QB’s grievances are about roster decisions—especially his receivers. If the Packers want Rodgers to stay beyond this year, they’ll have to give him more input about whom he’ll be playing alongside. The Packers are apparently taking this part seriously enough that they are trying to trade with Houston for former Packers receiver Randall Cobb, who left Green Bay in free agency two years ago. According to Trey Wingo, the Cobb deal may be the last domino for Rodgers to officially return. What a strange timeline we live in.
It is not a coincidence that Rodgers has sought the same contractual structure that guided Brady to free agency two years ago. Brady was frustrated by the receiver wasteland that was New England. But he was also frustrated that the team continued to treat him like any other player. He left to go to Tampa Bay because he would be throwing to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and because the organization was willing to take his suggestions—to allow him to be a coach as much as a player. Rodgers isn’t just seeking the security that he will be the starter for his team—that should be the bare minimum for an MVP!—but also that his team will seek his input on key decisions. Now, if the Packers want Rodgers to stay beyond next year, they’ll have to listen.
Neither side is getting exactly what they want in this deal. The Packers now have to include Rodgers in roster moves if they want to keep him happy. And Rodgers has to play for a team he seemed resolved never to return to. But sometimes, as Andrew Brandt, the former chief negotiator for the Green Bay Packers, said in a video on Twitter on Sunday, “the deals that both sides hate are the only way out.”
So what happens now? Rodgers will have some ’splainin’ to do when he shows up to training camp and faces the media. The world outside of Green Bay will undoubtedly obsess over the Last Dance Packers all season. And Rodgers himself is surely stoking the greatest motivational fire the world has ever seen (this entire saga has been one big Michael Jordan “and I took that personally” meme).
But in terms of the team itself, things seem … like they’ll be normal? Rodgers is going to show up to training camp. Adams is reportedly willing to discuss a contract extension with the team now that Rodgers’s financials are ironed out. Some ghosts of teams past—like Cobb—may return at Rodgers’s request. But the Packers themselves will likely be focused on a Super Bowl run. If there is one more lesson for Rodgers and the Packers to take from The Last Dance, it’s this: It don’t mean a thing without a ring.
Aaron Rodgers reported to Packers training camp today, here is the video of him walking into the facility.
That must be a first - paying your girlfriend not to cheat on you!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
This entire situation seems to be another example of Rodgers not quite doing things the way an all-time great should. At the end of the day, at the end of the season, it comes down to winning the Lombardi. And if your mindset is already that you're leaving, can you really be 100% focused on the Lombardi.
what happens when they actually win the super bowl this year? even though theres 1 year left after the exclusions, id imagine itd really get juicy.
............
Your question is interesting and I possibly should have asked that in the comment I made just above yours. How can you focus on winning when you are committed to leaving? And if you do happen to win, why are you leaving?
I hope he has the worst season of his career. It disgusts me that they are bending over backwards for him, I hope the fans boo him every game
i could see him using this as a determination to do nothing but win. then he will say i told you so, take his ball and go home. brady did the same thing, but was a gentleman about it and didnt air the dirty laundry out for all to smell. obviously slightly different circumstances there, but the emphasis being he didnt get a beer named “cry baby” by his own fan base.