The underlying message from Aaron Rodgers to Green Bay Packers management

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

It took him a while to get to it – to get past the friendly banter and the tribute and the jokes and the goofing around.

But make no mistake about this: Aaron Rodgers knew what he wanted to say and how he was going to say it.

The Green Bay Packers’ (for now) quarterback talks in riddles and enjoys doing so, which meant that while choosing the goodbye show of "SportsCenter" anchor Kenny Mayne as the outlet for long-awaited comments about his tangled job situation might have been an odd move for some, for Rodgers, it wasn’t.

Rodgers likes to keep everyone guessing to some degree, to operate in the space between full-chested assertions and subtle implications, talking in such a way as to make us think we know what he means, but we're never entirely sure.

A lot of it you can disregard as filler, unless you happen to be particularly interested in Ayurvedic cleanses, which, apparently, Rodgers underwent, losing 15 pounds in the process. But we’ve been watching this little game within the game play out for a while now, and we’re getting to grips with it. Probably.

Rodgers doesn’t speak without there being an underlying message, one thing he wishes for you to take away from it all, even if you’re not 100 percent convinced of it yourself. His appearance Monday night was largely about frivolity and not much about news. Yet we’re pretty sure that whatever news there was … is bad news for the Packers.

At his moment of greatest clarity, when for a couple of minutes during an 11-minute chat Rodgers got serious about discussing football-related matters, Rodgers fired a searing broadside at the Green Bay front office, the precise part of the organization with which there must be some positive agreement if things are going to resolve.

"I think sometimes people forget what really makes an organization," Rodgers said. "History is important, the legacy of so many people who’ve come before you. But the people, that’s the most important thing. The people make an organization. People make a business, and sometimes that gets forgotten.

"Culture is built brick by brick, the foundation of it by the people — not by the organization, not by the building, not by the corporation. It’s built by the people. I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a number of amazing, amazing people and got to work for some amazing people as well. It’s those people that build the foundation of those entities. I think sometimes we forget that."

Whoever you believe is at greater fault, the reality is that the deterioration of Rodgers’ situation, which has spawned the real possibility that he could leave the franchise after 16 years, stems from the fact that he has fundamental differences of opinion with general manager Brian Gutekunst.

Rodgers doesn’t seem to care much for Gutekunst as a GM or as a person, widening a wedge that gained its greatest distance when the Packers traded up to draft Jordan Love in 2020, with the idea that he would become Rodgers’ long-term replacement.

Now, with voluntary team activities underway and Rodgers having skipped the first portion of them, he’s digging in. There wasn’t a lot of leeway left by what he said. It has become personal. It has become a point of pride. He believes that his playing like a dream and winning the MVP award put "a wrench" in the club’s plans for a future without him, and he isn't enthused about the idea of letting the Packers get away with it.

"Aaron Rodgers wants nothing to do with [Gutekunst]," former All-Pro Brandon Marshall said on FS1’s "First Things First." "He wants him out of the organization. It is time to move on because it is going to break down the integrity. Either you move forward with Aaron Rodgers or Brian Gutekunst, but you have to pick one.

"Everything you’re trying to do from a football standpoint, winning ball games, getting back to the main thing, is broken down. They have to make a decision. They have to make a decision fast. They are not going to win like this."

It does indeed seem that things have reached a crescendo. Rodgers is ready to push and push and push some more until he either gets Gutekunst out of his way or makes Green Bay move him elsewhere.

Certain players play in their familiar uniforms for so long that it is difficult to imagine them departing for new locations, but that’s more about our own customs and expectations than anything else. Tom Brady wore a new jersey last season. He found it fit quite well.

If Rodgers finagles his way out of Green Bay, there would be a mighty price to be paid for him yet several suitors willing to cough it up. The Denver Broncos passed on every quarterback on the board in the recent NFL Draft and seem prepped to pull the pin on a blockbuster trade, should that option materialize.

In truth, if Rodgers becomes available, you can’t rule anything out. A reigning MVP with perhaps several big years left in him becoming available never really happens like this. Concrete plans sometimes become a bit more fluid in such situations.

Until then, we wait. News has been slow to trickle in on this one. The biggest story of the NFL offseason has come with a serious paucity of updates. Green Bay is saying nothing out loud, except for the consistent proclamations of head coach Matt LaFleur that the Packers want Rodgers back.

Of course they do, but it’s far from certain. Until resolution comes, we wait for the next message, cryptic or otherwise, that Rodgers has to offer — a tricky business when you’re dealing with a man who doesn’t say much while saying a lot. Or should that be the other way around?

When it comes to Aaron Rodgers, you can never be quite sure.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.