Aaron Rodgers has less than 24 hours to decide if he wants to officially hold out, and one NFL reporter believes the Green Bay Packers are “daring him” to do just that.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk discussed the feud between Rodgers and the Packers during a Monday appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show.” He said he believes it was very calculated that Packers CEO Mark Murphy said in his monthly column for the team’s website recently that the ongoing saga has “divided our fan base.”
“I think the Packers realize that Rodgers’ biggest fear is having the fans turn on him,” Florio said. “Those things weren’t written accidentally or extemporaneously. This was planned, read and revised. This was a deliberate message from the Packers to Rodgers and everyone else. I think what they’re trying to get Rodgers to do is realize that the fans are already turning and they’re daring him to not show up.”
Florio said he thinks many Packers fans are in denial and will go to “DEFCON 1” if Rodgers doesn’t show up to mandatory minicamp. However, he believes the Packers may be rooting for that outcome on some level.
“I think deep down (Murphy) wants him to not show up and (figures we’ll recoup) $30 million-plus and we’ll trade him next March anyway,” Florio said. “And we get a year to figure out what we have in Jordan Love.”
You can hear Florio’s full comments below:
Will @AaronRodgers12 going to show at #Packers OTAs next week?
Is Green Bay's front office daring him to skip it?@ProFootballTalk explained:#NFL pic.twitter.com/c8pbSNq9fg— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) June 7, 2021
If the Packers believe all the talk that Rodgers is committed to never playing for them again, having him not show up would not be the end of the world. Like Florio said, they could then avoid paying him this season and he would probably still have the same trade value a year from now.
Of course, Green Bay executives continue to insist publicly that they are committed to Rodgers. They are not, however, going to make the one change that could probably go a long way toward satisfying the reigning NFL MVP.
