Seth Udinski, FISM News
The impending divorce between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers should come any day now, according to new sources claiming Green Bay tried in vain to keep their future Hall of Fame quarterback. According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, the Packers offered Rodgers a two-year contract extension which would have made him the highest paid player in the NFL. Rodgers rejected the offer, leaving virtually no trace of any possibility for him to suit up in a Packers uniform for opening day of the 2021 season. Schefter reported the news via Twitter on Tuesday, saying correctly that Rodgers’ denial of the pricey contract extension proves his frustration with the Packers is “not about the money.”
So why is Rodgers so angry with a team on whom he spent 16 seasons and led to a Super Bowl championship while enjoying numerous winning seasons and a record-setting career? Rodgers feels the team let him down and disrespected him by neglecting to use draft picks on offensive weapons, and instead using a high 2020 pick to draft Rodgers’ likely successor, quarterback Jordan Love. Rodgers took the Packers to back-to-back NFC Championship games in the last two seasons, so the argument can be made that the Packers were (and possibly still are) one or two talented offensive draft picks away from multiple Super Bowl titles.
The contract would have kept Rodgers and the Packers together for the next five seasons. Each side is digging in; Rodgers has neglected attending offseason workouts up to this point, and the Packers have refused to trade him. With the NFL regular season beginning in less than two months, the Cold War between the NFL’s most storied franchise and one of its best all-time quarterbacks will remain at the top of NFL headlines.