Evan Siegle
Green Bay Packers vs. New Orleans Saints September 12, 2021
Rodgers’ yearly average pay of $50 million makes him the league’s top paid player.
Many Green Bay Packers fans started turning against quarterback Aaron Rodgers last November, right after they learned he had tested positive for COVID-19 and misled reporters when he told them he was “immunized” against the virus.
Unlike in previous years, when they eagerly gobbled up as much information about Rodgers’ off-field activities as they could, fans now roll their eyes at reports of a new tattoo, an Ayahuasca revelation, or social media influencer girlfriend.
Rodgers has detected this irritation, suggesting he’s been advised to “shut up and play.”
“I don’t want to be a robot. I’m not a cliche guy. I’m not a game-faced guy,” Rodgers complains in a two-and-a-half-hour podcast interview with supplements peddler Aubrey Marcus. “I’m the guy that shoots from the hip and speaks from the heart.”
Fan response, based on an unscientific sampling of sports talk radio chatter: Cool story, bro.
In March, Rodgers signed a contract that will pay him more than $150 million over the next three seasons, with the first two years fully guaranteed. The yearly average of $50 million makes him the highest-paid player in the league. It also means he is fair game for every Packers ticket holder, stockholder and jersey buyer who wants to ridicule him over his experiments with hallucinogens and his culture war complaints if the Packers don’t make another deep playoff run, regardless of how that might harsh his mellow.
And that playoff run is far from certain. Unlike previous years, Rodgers is working with a significantly diminished group of pass catchers. Receiver Davante Adams, arguably the league’s best, caught 123 passes last season before taking off to play for Las Vegas. Also gone are Marquez Valdes-Scantling (26 receptions) and Equanimeous St. Brown (9 receptions).
Allen Lazard (40 catches) has stepped into the top spot with Sammy Watkins, who played for Baltimore last year and won a Super Bowl with Kansas City in 2019, taking over as the number two receiver. There is hope that rookies Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson and second-year player Amari Rodgers can contribute, but Rodgers was critical of their play during training camp, warning them, via comments to reporters, “You keep dropping the ball, you’re not going to be out there.”
The Packers open their season at Minnesota (Sept. 11, 3:25 p.m.) and at home against Chicago (Sept. 18, 7:20 p.m.), two teams with lousy defenses last season. Next up are Tampa Bay and New England, two pretty good defenses. Rodgers should be able to establish some chemistry with his receivers in the first two games before earning his hefty game checks in the next two.
