Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tells the Packers that he no longer wants to play for the team.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said that many team sources have said that Rodgers has told some people inside the organization that he wants to leave.
Rodgers’s anger began about 12 months ago when the Packers didn’t inform him about drafting Jordan Love, who is a new quarterback and will be Rodgers’s presumed successor.
Rodgers said in May 2020 that it was “more the surprise of the pick based on my feelings of wanting to play into my 40s and then really the realization that it does change the controllable.”
The Packers have said that they are not trading Aaron Rodgers and that he still has three more years with them.
Brian Gutekunst, the General Manager of the Green Bay Packers, told ESPN that, “Aaron has been a vital part of our success and we look forward to competing for another championship with him leading the team.”
Rodgers has a lot of disdain towards General Manager Gutekunst because he was the one who decided to take Love in the first round of the NFL draft, that completely blindsided Rodgers. Rodgers compared Gutekunst to former Chicago Bulls General Manager Brain Krause.
Krause is known for putting the Bulls team together and also breaking them up after winning six titles in the 1990s. Some of the Bulls players, including Michael Jordan, criticized Krause. In the Netflix documentary “The Last Dance”, it showed the strained relationship between Krause and Bulls players Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Before the 1997-1998 NBA season, Krause informed the head coach at the time Phil Jackson that it would be his last season as head coach for the Bulls. It caused a lot of drama in the Bulls’ locker room.
Rodgers was drafted to the Green Bay Packers in 2005. After backing Brett Favre for three years in his NFL career, Rodgers became the new Packers starting quarterback back in 2008.
In 2011, he led the Packers to victory in Super Bowl XLV against the Pittsburgh Steelers and also earning the Super Bowl MVP.
Many people have said that Rodgers should go to another team, where he feels more appreciated. One of those people happens to be Stephen A. Smith, where he said that Rodgers has done a lot for the Packers, has carried the team on his shoulders for 13 seasons and it is time for him to leave.
Rodgers at this moment hasn’t made a statement about him leaving the Packers, but sources from ESPN have said that Team President Mark Murphy, Gutekunst and Head Coach Matt LaFleur of the Packers have each flown out separately to California to meet with Rodgers. For now, it’s unclear if Rodgers will stay with the team or not.