Aaron Rodgers is perfectly content doing Aaron Rodgers things, whether you like it or not. The NFL MVP from the 2020 season, who has been embroiled in a tense standoff with the Green Bay Packers front office this offseason, seems to have thoroughly enjoyed how he has put his offseason to use. According to Rodgers, he has focussed on his own mental health, and quite frankly it’s more than a little inspiring.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to work on my mental health,” Rodgers said. “I haven’t dealt with bouts of depression or anything that I think, for whatever reason, are OK to talk about if you’re talking about mental health. I’ve just really been trying to think about what puts me in the best frame of mind. What habits can I form that allow me to feel most in my body, most present, happiest? And that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Let’s recap the offseason of one Mr. Rodgers (heh).
News came out that he’s engaged to an actress named Shailene Woodley a couple days after the general public learned that they were even dating, and Woodley said that they’ve been engaged “for a while now.” Rodgers was galavanting around Hawaii with Woodley and actor Miles Teller and his wife, hosted Jeopardy!, wore a “Turd Ferguson” nametag to The Kentucky Derby, and rocked a man bun while playing acoustic guitar.
This all seems perfectly normal.
Building up to “The Match,” which will see Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau face off with Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson in a round of golf this afternoon, Brady had this to say about Rodgers — who was wearing an “I’m Offended” shirt — and his situation.
If it doesn’t seem normal, maybe it should. We are too quick to scrutinize athletes for stepping anywhere outside the little box where the old guard would like them to stay; any threat to “normal” is a threat to control, which drives those currently in control absolutely mad.
The Packers have been adamant that they will not trade Rodgers, and that they want him under center for 2021 and beyond, which obviously you would assume they would say after Rodgers had arguably the best season in his career with 4,299 passing yards, 48 touchdowns, and only five interceptions en route to an MVP.
As the calendar flips into July, it seems nobody has any idea what will happen in Green Bay except for Rodgers, and he seems perfectly fine with that. Rodgers doesn’t owe the fans or the organization anything. Athletes are not possessions of their cities and fanbases. Rodgers is doing what’s best for Rodgers, after years of effort and sacrifice for a front office that continues to stay stagnant and downright idiotic in their roster construction — i.e., trading up last year to draft quarterback Jordan Love while not selecting a single wide receiver in all seven rounds.
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