It was a quiet spring day in Minnesota until people here took out their phones in boredom. A quick scroll of social media revealed that Aaron Rodgers would be appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, ready to break his silence after an offseason tour clouded in mystery.
Minnesota Vikings fans were probably bracing for impact days after SI’s Albert Breer reported that he made a pitch to become J.J. McCarthy’s mentor and lead the team to a Super Bowl. Still, the fears remained that Rodgers would enter Kevin O’Connell’s culture, which was so clean you could perform surgery in it, and burn it to the ground.
There was another chance that things would be different. Appearing clean-shaven in his Malibu beach house, maybe Rodgers had changed and was willing to be a new man, to be baptized in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. Instead, he validated every concern the Vikings could have and showed again why he can’t be trusted in Minnesota.
It started with Rodgers’ divorce from the New York Jets. Traveling cross-country on his own dime, Rodgers flew across blue skies, had his secret handshake with the security guard, and had pleasant conversations with anyone he met. Then the clouds came, the thunder roared, and Aaron Glenn looked at him and said…
“You want to play football?” Glenn said, via Rodgers’ account.
“Yeah, I’m interested,” Rodgers replied.
“We’re going in a different direction,” Glenn said.
At that moment, Glenn stole his jet, traveled back to his Malibu home, and ate all of Rodgers’ porridge. He even turned the thermostat to 80 degrees and wrote “GO JETS GO” in the sand to mock his former quarterback.
OK, the last part is made up, but Rodgers’ story has a few holes. While he wasn’t shocked by the Jets’ decision, he was surprised they didn’t do it over the phone. Of course, that comes with Rodgers’ patented tone-deaf approach.
Rodgers says he has clarity and isn’t tied to anything. But when the Green Bay Packers selected Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 draft, he infamously poured “four fingers of sipping tequila” before going on a vengeful campaign that landed Most Valuable Player Awards in 2020 and 2021.
He claimed he isn’t holding anybody hostage, even though he tried to get Packers GM Brian Gutekunst fired before the 2021 season. Four years later, Pittsburgh Steelers fans would argue he’s doing the same thing, traveling to their city in disguise and doing everything but signing a contract after touring their facility.
In 2023, Rodgers was on the fence about retiring, and Gutekunst called to see what he was thinking. Then he called again…and again…and again with no answer from his ayahuasca-influenced quarterback. Eventually, the two sides agreed that a trade was for the best, and they sent him to the Jets.
We all know what followed with the torn Achilles in 2023 and the 5-12 record in 2024. But Rodgers couldn’t have been more destructive if he covered Florham Park in gasoline and lit a match. The Jets ultimately fired general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh, who checked off on adding Tim Boyle, Randall Cobb, and Davante Adams. Who can blame them? They didn’t check their Madden ratings, a no-no in Jets culture.
Whatever happened, it wasn’t Rodgers’ fault. He was dealing with “very serious things” in his personal life as he made his first free-agent decision. Besides, he says he’s willing to play for $10 million and isn’t waiting on McCarthy’s status to decide whether he wants to bypass retirement for another year. The government and the league are cutting out his internet and trying to keep the word from getting out there!
All of this emphasizes why the Vikings should pass on Rodgers. O’Connell and Rodgers may connect as two California quarterbacks, but Rodgers and Saleh had positive vibes when they first met in 2021. We know how that relationship ended, and it could be a problem if Rodgers is unproductive immediately in his age-41 season. There’s also the chance that Rodgers will go rogue, as Glenn accused him in his account of February’s meeting with the Jets.
It also says something that a head coach trying to establish a new culture wouldn’t commit to a former Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer. Still, O’Connell is interested in the quarterback who wears wired earbuds to protect his brain.
That could all sound pretty tempting to a fanbase desperate for a Super Bowl and obsessed with Rodgers’ former team. But, ultimately, Rodgers proved he’s not the right fit, potentially shutting down the story that refuses to die.
