IF RODGERS WOULD SHUT UP, HE’D REALIZE HIS LEGACY IS IN JEOPARDY

This isn’t how he wants his career to end, performing poorly and limply after calling out his Packers bosses, and if he doesn’t wake up soon, he’ll lose more than respect — all his trade options, too

     What he doesn’t want to be is the answer to a “Jeopardy!’’ question. You know: “This diva quarterback, who slicks back his hair in a modified man bun that channels the look of a drug smuggler in a Turkish action movie, was prodded by his latest celebrity girlfriend to demand a trade in a power play that backfired during a dismal 2021 season?’’

     If he isn’t careful, Aaron Rodgers could be voicing those words about himself before he knows it. That assumes the game show still wants him as a host with his approval rating plunging at a Mike Richards-like rate.

     The danger of spinning “a beautiful mystery,’’ as Rodgers described his NFL future, is that the drama might spiral into a debacle beyond his control. By engaging his Green Bay Packers bosses in an epic offseason political war, he put the onus on his 37-year-old shoulders to maintain an MVP level of performance and direct his team to the Super Bowl. It isn’t too late to do so, keeping in mind that his quarterbacking career ranks among the 10 greatest ever. But based on a horrific Week 1 performance that resembled an out-of-body experience — limp, disconnected from his teammates and coaches, no chemistry or interest in rallying the cause during a 37-3 loss to New Orleans — Rodgers faces an immediate burden to fix himself and the dysfunction he helped create.

     When a prominent athlete goes down the prima-donna rabbit hole, he must respond like a warrior and prove to a football nation of judges and juries that he was justified in his mission. What he cannot do is quit and shrivel up like a pouting child. If so, Rodgers risks an unsightly, sourpuss conclusion to a legacy that hangs perilously in the balance. This is not how he wants to depart the sport, as someone who won only one Super Bowl, blamed management for a 10-year title drought and struggled to play well after pointing fingers.

     You can’t condemn the front office for a lack of leadership, then show no leadership in the first regular-season game. The lifeless outing was especially galling because Rodgers refused to shut up before the game, continuing the trade narrative in a Fox Sports interview. It wasn’t enough to torch the Packers for drafting his eventual QB successor, Jordan Love, and not giving him a voice in personnel matters in a small market that “is not a vacation destination’’ for free agents. Valid as his criticisms were, he should have thought about the team and let those feelings fade into the past. Instead, the minute Erin Andrews showed up last week with a camera crew and asked about his trade demand, he couldn’t help himself. The Summer of Aaron now was The Year of Aaron.

     Did he think the Packers would trade him?

     “Yeah, I did. Because they wouldn't commit to me past 2021. So I figured if they wanted to make a change, even though I just won MVP, why wait?’’ he said, ripping open the wounds. “They drafted my replacement, so let him play if that's what you want."

     Was he prepared to retire?

     “One hundred percent," he said. “I don't think I have anything left to prove on the field. I think it's more about the enjoyment and happiness and quality of life that this game has afforded me over the years and being able to 100 percent commit to everything that my job entails. And there were many times during the offseason that I didn't think I was fully ready to do that."

     Was his discontent a byproduct of seeing Tom Brady, six years older than Rodgers, flee New England and win a seventh championship after assuming personnel power in Tampa Bay?

     “No. It's been years and years," he said. “It's been a decade of having conversations and wanting to have a greater impact in what goes on here. I wanted to make sure I was involved in those conversations moving forward if they wanted me here. I just want to be happy."

     It must kill him to hear Brady joke about playing until he’s 50, eyeing an eighth Super Bowl ring this February. Asked by bromance partner Rob Gronkowski on their YouTube show if he’ll play six more years, he said, “Wow, seems to be a really hot question lately. ‘Can Tom Brady play ’til 50?’ Like, 50 years old? Fifty. I don’t find it so difficult. Plus, in Florida, it’s kind of a retiree state, so I feel like I can play and then just glide into retirement. I think I can. I think it’s a yes.’’

     For Rodgers, the only chance for contentment is a moratorium on all conversation about the front office and a trade. Beginning Monday night at Lambeau Field, against Detroit, Aaron The Malcontent must reclaim Aaron The Hall of Famer. The game is very winnable, but the following Sunday night, the Packers are in the Bay Area, where he’ll be blitzed with questions about the April trade he wanted dearly but fell apart — Rodgers to the San Francisco 49ers in his native northern California. Next up will be a home test against newly minted T.J. Watt and a fearsome Pittsburgh defense.

     So, the season could crash in a hurry if Rodgers doesn’t wake up. At least he seems to understand as much. “This is a good kick in the you-know-where,” he said. “We played bad. I played bad. Not characteristic of how we’ve practiced in training camp. Obviously not how I’ve played over the year. This is hopefully an outlier moving forward. We’ll find out.” He blamed one of his two interceptions on “the double nut shot I took’’ before the pass, a quote uttered on his weekly appearance with radio dude Pat McAfee, another media foray best avoided. 

     He also might want to look around the league and realize many of his future opportunities have dried up. The 49ers drafted Trey Lance, who will inherit the big job from Jimmy Garoppolo. The Los Angeles Rams are thrilled to have Matthew Stafford, whose career is reborn as he wakes up to an ocean view every morning after years of Detroit gloom. Justin Herbert is entrenched as the young franchise QB of the L.A. Chargers. Sean Payton is proving a point in New Orleans, preferring to bid low on a Jameis Winston reclamation project that is thriving so far. Bill Belichick is grooming Mac Jones in New England. Like it or not, Jon Gruden is tied to the rambling, gambling Derek Carr in Las Vegas. Other than Denver, which might want to make a splash if Jeff Bezos and Jay-Z buy the team with Peyton Manning as the franchise face, is there a team that would ship away top draft picks and assets for a moody QB whose skills are fading as he nears 38? The wild card is Deshaun Watson, who may yet survive his legal entanglement — the staggering allegations of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct, including 22 civil lawsuits and 10 criminal complaints from seemingly every massage therapist in the American South — if the league suspends him and ultimately reinstates him. Imagine, a team preferring a problematic Watson, who is just 26, over the brooding Cheesehead.

     In the right frame of mind, Rodgers could play into his 40s. But Drew Brees and Philip Rivers fell victim to age. Manning’s health caught up to him, and brother Eli slipped into mediocrity. Ben Roethlisberger is seeing a setting sun at 39. And the trends are unmistakable — thrillmaking QBs are all the rage, inspired by Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson. Kyler Murray is breaking out in Arizona. Josh Allen got paid in Buffalo. Don’t give up on Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. Baker Mayfield finally is growing up in Cleveland. Jalen Hurts has an opportunity in Philadelphia. Lance’s time will come. Same with Justin Fields in Chicago. It’s a young man’s game, the quarterbacking trade, with Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence trying to live up the first-overall-pick expectations. Brady is noticing, saying so on his podcast this week.

     “I don’t remember this many rookies playing," he said. “Even the second-year guys. Tua (Tagovailoa), Herbert, Burrow, Trevor Lawrence. Fields played a little bit. Trey Lance played a little bit. Zach Wilson is playing. Mac Jones is playing. That’s a lot of young quarterbacks. Gone are the days of Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning. You know, those are the guys I’m used to hearing about.

     “I’ll be forgotten here soon. I’ll move on and they’ll be onto someone else but that’s just the way football goes, as does life."

     If Rodgers would stop talking, maybe he’d hear the message.

     Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.