How’s this for a twist? Aaron Rodgers wants a divorce before he gets married.
Yes, before he ties the knot with Shailene Woodley, Rodgers wants to end his 16 year marriage with the Green Bay Packers. With impeccably explosive timing just hours before the NFL Draft began Thursday night, Rodgers made it perfectly clear through a source to ESPN’s Adam Schefter that he’s become disgruntled with the organization to the point that he doesn’t want to return even with three years left on his contract.
That fueled an avalanche of speculation into the night about the Packers possibly trading the three time and reigning NFL MVP but late Thursday night, General Manager Brian Gutekunst flatly stated, “We’re not going to trade Aaron Rodgers.”
Without hearing from Rodgers directly to this point, the question begs to be asked, why is he so angry?
Is it the lingering frustration over the drafting of his presumed successor in Jordan Love a year ago? He surely harbors some resentment with the GM for that pick and even Gutekunst admitted Thursday night the lines of communication could have been better by at least giving Rodgers a heads up the trade up for Love was a possibility. Unless Love makes great strides this off-season, he doesn’t appear ready to take the reigns.
Is he exasperated with Vice President and Director of Football Operations Russ Ball for not making adjustments to his contract so he won’t simply be a place holder for Love for one, maybe two more seasons? Perhaps. Even though the Packers have twice made Rodgers the highest paid player in league history and have held discussions this off-season on both a restructuring and extension to give him more peace of mind.
Has he had it with President and CEO Mark Murphy after watching Tom Brady leave the New England Patriots as a free agent after 20 years and wind up in Tampa Bay where the Buccaneers brought everyone on board he wanted from Rob Gronkowski to Antonio Brown and Leonard Fournette that resulted in a Super Bowl title? That hints of jealousy considering Rodgers couldn’t lead his Packers over Brady’s Bucs in the NFC title game that at long wait was played at Lambeau Field.
It’s now turned into a game of chicken and who’s going to blink? The only leverage Rodgers has is to withhold his services to a franchise that has already paid him in excess of 240 million dollars over his spectacular 13 year run as the starting quarterback. Don’t forget, he was the QB in wait for three full seasons until Brett Favre finally called it a career only to reconsider which led to that bitter divorce in the summer of 2008. Rodgers is trying to force the issue after only one year with Love on the roster.
Back on April 5th, Rodgers made one of his regular appearances on the Pat McAfee show and reiterated his thoughts on his past, present and future:
So how did “being at peace” and “not being bitter” fester into an ultimatum in less than a month?
The Packers can’t trade Rodgers before June first because it would cripple an already stressed salary cap situation. Eight players on the roster will account for 160 million dollars of the salary cap next year. Financial situations like that doomed the Dallas Cowboys run at a dynasty in the 1990’s. Keep in mind another Brady fact from his Patriot days, he continually restructured his contract to free up cap space to allow New England to re-tool and stay competitive enough to win six Lombardi trophies. Rodgers watched several of teammates to likewise this off-season just to get Aaron Jones and Kevin King back in the fold and there wasn’t enough left over to keep All Pro Center Corey Linsley. Dealing Rodgers after June would give the team approximately 14 million in cap relief.
Gutekunst must now somehow convince Rodgers to change his mind but the damage may already be done, the perception around the league is clear, the Packers are in a state of disarray.
It’s not looking very pretty on the other side.
The quarterback is headed to Louisville to attend the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs this weekend and maybe we’ll get to hear the reasons why he wants a divorce before a marriage, straight from the horse’s mouth.
