Let’s begin by reminding everyone that Aaron Rodgers is very, very good at this. He knows the game cold, he’s quick on his feet, he does his homework, he respects the history and tradition of the position—and he wishes not merely to impress, but to be the best, for a long, long time.
As an NFL quarterback, Rodgers is considerably better. He is football’s reigning MVP, a man who, in 2020, threw for 48 touchdowns against five interceptions, and led the Green Bay Packers to the doorstep of the Super Bowl, before being undone by Tom Brady and Tampa Bay and his own team’s questionable decision to kick a late field goal instead of trying to score a touchdown and 2-point conversion to tie the game. Rodgers is 37, and still among football’s most electric athletes, someone who, at least two or three times a game, attempts a dazzling NONONOYESYESYES pass that only he, or maybe Patrick Mahomes, can pull off.
He’s an awesome circus, a Hall of Famer to be. It’s hard to argue.
But now it appears he’s done with Green Bay. Word arrived prior to last week’s opening of the NFL draft that Rodgers was fed up with his job in Wisconsin and was open to a trade. Rodgers has hinted at discontent in the past, and it sounds as if he’s irritated with the Packer front office—according to a report in Yahoo, he’s specifically miffed with general manager Brian Gutekunst, and the bad vibes extend back to at least last spring, when Green Bay picked quarterback Jordan Love in the first round without bothering to let Rodgers know.
Rodgers’s trade-me-maybe displeasure, reported first by ESPN, struck football like a thunderbolt, which was probably exactly why it was divulged. Draft Week is already the NFL’s Woodstock, but now the MVP was potentially available in a trade? As the NBA has discovered, a superstar on the block is tantalizing drama, and a protracted, headline-grabbing saga in the offseason can help a dormant sport stay relevant. Of course, it can also become exceedingly tiresome. If you’re already exhausted of reading about Rodgers, hide under a couch: his whereabouts will be NFL Story No. 1 until play resumes in September.
Where does he go? Unclear. Gutekunst, the Packer GM, has come forward and said the team is “not going to trade Aaron Rodgers,” which does little to dampen the buzz, since that’s exactly the thing you should say if you’re a general manager trying to extract maximum value. Rumors of a Rodgers wish list—San Francisco, Denver, the Raiders of Nevada—have circulated, though any fantasy of Rodgers in the Bay Area appeared to dim when the 49ers used the third pick to take the North Dakota State phenom Trey Lance.
Shouldn’t most teams inquire? A current MVP has never been on the NFL market before, so the usual hesitations—yeah, we’re really pleased with _______________ as our quarterback—don’t make a lot of sense. Rodgers is expensive (he’s amid a 4-year, $134 million deal), so a fit is financially complicated, but how many NFL teams wouldn’t immediately be a few grades better with Rodgers under center? One? Two? I would put him in the lineup for the Mets, he would probably get a couple of hits.
Conversely, it’s hard to argue that the Packers, who, of course, let Brett Favre wander to the Jets so the Rodgers Era could begin—but do not appear to be as comfortable yet with the 22-year-old Love—wouldn’t be dramatically worse. “I just can’t imagine him not being in a Green Bay Packer uniform,” said head coach Matt LaFleur, surely with visions of losing twice a year to the Lions dancing in his head.
What we have here is a good, old-fashioned superstar standoff, between a valued player who, justifiably or not, feels disrespected, and a team which has to do the delicate dance of placating a key individual while simultaneously maintaining authority. There’s always the possibility that Rodgers and the Packers could find a cooperative path forward—the Packers have mentioned trips to Rodgers’s West Coast whereabouts, trying to get on the same page—and everyone’s happily wearing cheddar styrofoam hats come summer.
But the status quo is no fun! It’s much more fun to think of Rodgers in Broncos orange, or Raider silver and black, or New Orleans black and old gold…
There is, of course, a wild card/nuclear option, already raised by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that, if the situation isn’t resolved, Rodgers could retire from football altogether—abandoning millions of NFL dollars and possibly changing careers…to host “Jeopardy!”
Rodgers doesn’t have that job, however. His recent two-week guest host run got a lot of buzz and praise, so it’s likely he will get some consideration, but he shouldn’t be stockpiling suits and ties just yet. On last Friday’s The Journal podcast (the Journal is also a podcast—do you listen? Start now, it’s really good) “Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards heaped praise on Rodgers, but also stated his preference that the next host see “Jeopardy!” as a full-time job, which works against the idea of Rodgers hosting while continuing to play football.
“I would prefer it is someone who is dedicated to the show, completely,” Richards told the Journal’s Ryan Knutson, while acknowledging the decision will be up to a larger group.
Let’s play this through. Is there some hazard for “Jeopardy!” here? Does an iconic game show want to risk alienating football fans, and the whole of Wisconsin? Is Rodgers the best fit? (When I last wrote about this, some of you wrote to me complaining he was a bit stiff.) Haven’t a zillion fans said they really want LeVar Burton to get the job?
If nothing else, it’s an eccentric twist: an NFL player possibly walking away at the height of his powers to tell a panel of borderline geniuses they have their Roman history and Nordic geography tangled. Not since Jim Brown retired amid filming “The Dirty Dozen” has there been a comparable sports to showbiz walk-off. It would make Aaron Rodgers unlike any other quarterback to ever play the game. Of course, he’s pretty much that already, which is why this is such a thing.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
If he plays, where do you think Aaron Rodgers will be playing football in September?
Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com
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