WHY DOES RODGERS MISS A MANDATORY MINICAMP? PLEASE DON’T SAY RFK JR.
The presidential election arrives in mid-season, and though he needed to blow off the Jets in a required session, let’s hope his mind is away from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the furious months ahead
For now, it doesn’t disturb me. Aaron Rodgers missed a mandatory two-day minicamp with an excuse accepted by his coach, which is fine on June 11. What bugs me is where he might have gone. Was he hanging out with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is faring well with Latino pollsters? Was he escaping to a South American psychoactive brew? Pat McAfee didn’t call, did he? Was he falsifying Jimmy Kimmel? Badmouthing vaccines? Who’s next for a conspiracy theory?
Or does he want a contract extension?
He continues to be a hazardous man when we have no idea what’s on his mind. All I remembered Tuesday is what Rodgers said of the New York Jets, a team whose season he missed with an Achilles tendon tear. Remember media leaks in the organization last year? He took his surgically enhanced foot and stomped hard at the podium.
“Anything in this building that we're doing that has nothing to do with winning needs to be assessed. Everything that we do has to have a purpose ... the bullshit that has nothing to do with winning has to get out of the building,” he said in January.
Then he appeared with McAfee and said, “That's a problem with the organization, we need to get to the bottom of whatever this is coming from and put a stop to it privately. I think its chicken shit at its core and I think it has no place in a winning organization.”
So, wouldn’t Rodgers be primed to prove his point and show up for two days with his teammates? We aren’t sure why he wasn’t in Florham Park, but coach Robert Saleh said his absence technically was unexcused, meaning the team can fine him $50,861 by rule of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement. Without an expressed understanding of his nonattendance, this indeed sounds like vintage, pain-in-the-ass Rodgers, beyond view of TV cameras and the sound of conversation since last September. Did his DNA recognize his ego’s lack of attention? Was it time to make a point and trot himself into headlines?
“Selfishly, I want our guys here all the time, but when you get to these mandatory things, you make the best decision for yourself,” Saleh said. “Obviously, selfishly, I want all of them here all the time, but he made a decision and that's where he went.”
All we’ve heard from Rodgers this year is his admiration for Kennedy. Imagine if he’d accepted the presidential candidate’s offer to be his running mate, forcing his retirement from football with four MVP trophies and only one Super Bowl victory. Of late, political experts are assessing whether Kennedy’s presence impedes President Biden or Donald Trump. The election is less than five months away. Is Rodgers getting itchy about the campaign when he should be concerned about the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, not to mention surviving an AFC that includes Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, C.J. Stroud, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow?
“Yeah, I love Bobby,” Rodgers commented last month. “We had a couple really nice conversations, but there were really two options: It was retire and be his VP or keep playing. I want to keep playing.”
Does it bother him, in another year of bonkers political activity, that his name will be associated with Kennedy? Even with Nicole Shanahan, not related to the football family, selected as the vice president on the ticket? “I respect those opinions, but those are offseason things and those are real opportunities, mostly podcasts, friends of mine, and the Bobby thing was a real thing,” Rodgers said. “How it got out there, I don't know. It wasn't from me. Once the season starts, it's all about football.”
The season hasn’t started. When it does, Rodgers is 40 with another birthday in early December. This should be his final chance to contend for a playoff berth, knowing his only Super Bowl was a triumph in 2011. The Jets reformulated their reason for existing by trading for him, watching him crumble at the Meadowlands on the first Monday. He knows what’s at stake for the franchise that gambled on him — and Aaron Rodgers.
“If I don't do what I know I'm capable of doing, we're all probably going to be out of here. I like that kind of pressure, though,” he said. "You might not say it, but as you get older in the league, if you don't perform, they're going to get rid of you or bring in the next guy to take over.
“I mean, it happened in Green Bay, and I'm a few years older than I was back then. I expect to play at a high level. I expect us to be productive and competitive and all that stuff to take care of itself.”
His teammates are carrying on without a fuss. “He's still trying to come back, still getting back to feeling right from his injury and everything,” running back Breece Hall said. “I know he's working his tail off. Whether he's here or not, I know he's all in.”
The event in question, according to Saleh, was “very important” to Rodgers. He appeared in camp Monday and took a physical. Last month, he was all but perfect in practice drills. “I don't want to go out as a bum,” he said. “So that's why I put the work in and believe in my abilities. I mean, you guys saw today. There's no pads on, but I can obviously still throw it with the best of them and can still move around. I look forward to getting back to where I was last year. When I play well, I think all the individual possibilities for recognition would be great.
“But if I play the way I'm capable of playing, we'll be playing for a lot more than that.”
The first preseason game is two months away. Opening night is Sept. 9 in the Bay Area, against the San Francisco 49ers. He must play well. He must stay healthy. And he must win plenty of games.
If not, then we’ll poleaxe him into the Hall of Fame. Give him a few weeks to do his ayahuasca and psilocybin. As he said, “To me, one of the core tenets of your mental health is that self-love. That’s what ayahuasca did for me, was help me see how to unconditionally love myself. It’s only in that unconditional self-love, that then I’m able to truly be able to unconditionally love others. And what better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that?”
Just love yourself, Aaron. Love your teammates. Love the fans. Love New Jersey.
Ignore “Bobby,” as you call him. Do not bring him up again. Or else.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question 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.