Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari will miss the remainder of the season due to an upcoming arthroscopic knee surgery, which clouds his future with the club. And while addressing that uncertainty on Friday, Bakhtiari made sure to poke a little fun at his former teammate and long-time friend, Aaron Rodgers, in the process.
“I have a really good relationship with Brian (Gutekunst). He’s been awesome with me. I pick up all his FaceTimes,” Bakhtiari told reporters, via Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated.
For many, the joke went right over their heads. It just seemed like a curious comment from a player who was trying to find a little levity at a bad time. For others, it generated an immediate chuckle.
Back in April, during his introductory press conference with the New York Jets, Rodgers suggested that he didn’t return any calls from the Packers because he has poor cell service at his house. He suggested that if Gutekunst had FaceTimed him, perhaps things would have been different.
“People who know me, I’m fortunate to live in a beautiful house,” Rodgers said at the time, via Pro Football Talk. “The only downside is I have very limited cell service. If you want to get ahold of me, I need to see your face. You have to FaceTime me. So, the only response to the communication thing is, there’s records in your phone about who called you, when, FaceTime, and there wasn’t any specific FaceTimes from any of those numbers that I was looking at. That’s neither here nor there because now we’re in this position.
“Obviously, that’s the direction they wanted to go as far as the story they couldn’t get ahold of me, which led for this to be the case.”
Gutekunst maintains that he made repeated attempts to contact Rodgers to discuss his future but that each went ignored.
Bakhtiari, who sounds like a man who’d like to return to Green Bay, doesn’t intend to follow the same path as Rodgers and will answer both calls and FaceTimes. He probably isn’t headed off on any darkness retreats, either.
