Aaron Rodgers' Distractions Continue

After the end of last season, Aaron Rodgers made it clear that he wanted no more distractions and going forward only cared about winning football games. “Flush the BS,” Rodgers said. “Anything in the building that we’re doing individually or collectively that has nothing to do with real winning needs to be assessed,” Rodgers continued. The problem is that this quote has backfired specifically on Rodgers himself as he has been the main distraction ever since.

For starters, Rodgers has discussed a variety of political topics which brought a lot of controversy and unwanted attention to 1 Jets Drive in Florham Park, NJ. There was also the time this offseason when he was rumored to be in the running to be the Vice President choice for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which then brought in questions to his NFL future and commitment to Gang Green.

Rodgers allowed the speculation to continue for weeks without putting it to rest, creating more unwanted noise around the Jets. Finally, after Rodgers accused Jimmy Kimmel of being on the Jeffrey Epstein list, Pat McAfee announced Rodgers would no longer be on his show for the rest of the NFL season. However, he came on a day later to address the departures of both Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.

Jets News: Aaron Rodgers Skipped Minicamp to Head to Egypt

The latest episode of the Rodgers controversy occurred when he decided not to show up for mandatory minicamp. In fact, just last week, Rodgers defended himself by saying he made it a point to go to every OTA. His reasoning for skipping minicamp, though, was that he really wanted to go to Egypt and it’s unfortunate that there was a scheduling conflict, but it is what it is. Prior to this, Rodgers went on the “Pardon My Take” podcast via Barstool and claimed that even though minicamp is mandatory, it is basically the same thing as OTAs, which he had already attended.

The problem is that it doesn’t matter because minicamp is contractually required. By definition, the meaning of mandatory is that you are required to show up. That would be like your significant other asking you to show up for your kid’s school play and you blow it off because you went to the other ones before.

All this nonsense makes it seem like the whole team and front office, from Robert Saleh to Joe Douglas to Woody Johnson are scared to tell him what to do. They should have put their foot down and said you can’t miss minicamp, but they didn’t and probably never will because he effectively runs this team now. Instead, they are scared if they upset him, he will leave.

There’s also no way that Rodgers can convince anyone that there was no other time he could have gone to Egypt. It’s not like he has to worry about getting cheap flights or hotels when he signed a $75 million contract. While Saleh publicly said that he wasn’t concerned with Rodgers not being excused to go to Egypt, you have to think that behind closed doors, while he might be ecstatic to coach an all-time great, he is annoyed to have to deal with distractions like these.

This feels very similar to when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving went to the Brooklyn Nets and there were constant distractions with Kyrie. It brings the same question into the equation, where do you look away because of the talent, or do you step in and do something about it? The only difference is the Jets have been in constant QB disarray, while the Nets had been playing well before they went all in for a championship. The Jets have Rodgers under contract only through this upcoming season, which means that they are on Super Bowl or bust expectations. Without a Super Bowl win, or close to it, this whole experiment would have been an utter disaster.

While all of this is going on, there is still the storyline of Rodgers coming off a torn Achilles at 40 years old, which we have never seen before. It is worth pointing out that there have only been 15 QBs who have played over the age of 40 and only three of those had a winning record (Tom Brady 13-3, Brett Favre 13-12, and Matt Hasselbeck 5-3).

If Rodgers plays well this season starting week one on Monday Night Football at the San Francisco 49ers, this will all go away for the time being. If he struggles, the questions and criticism will only grow louder.

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