This appeared in The Athletic the other day:

Aaron Rodgers hasn’t denied he wants to move on from the Green Bay Packers after months of reported discontent. General manager Brian Gutekunst has insisted he won’t deal the reigning NFL MVP. But there’s apparently one way the Packers would agree to trade the star quarterback. According to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, Green Bay would actually move Rodgers if it “believed he was truly committed to never playing for them again” and preferred a trade package over potential savings from the QB’s contract.

Schneidman’s report implies the Packers don’t yet believe Rodgers is “truly committed” to leaving for good, or that they might prefer saving millions if Rodgers retires rather than collecting draft picks or players by shipping the star QB elsewhere. Both could be true.

It really is incredible to see just how little respect Brian Gutekunst has for Aaron Rodgers. The Packers’ front office really seem to be going out of their way to piss him off. Drafting Jordan Love without telling him first, the “don’t you be the problem” lecture he reportedly got from team President Mark Murphy, spending 9 of the past 10 first round picks on defense, letting go of the QB coach he liked without consulting him first. Then there was that little flap about him being irate they cut Jake Kumerow–honestly at this point, I’m wondering if they cut Kumerow just to spite Rodgers.

I have no idea why the Packers’ front office apparently despises Rodgers so much. Maybe Aaron really is impossible to deal with behind closed doors. Whatever the reason, it seems like the Packers’ front office goes out of its way to antagonize Rodgers.

Now, after years of being total dicks to him, he’s finally said, “That’s it. I’ve had it with your bullshit. I’m done with you. I can’t stand you. I’m out.”

And the Packers’ front office response is, “Pffft. Yeah right. You don’t have the balls.”

It really is incredible how little respect the Packers’ front office has for him. If the Packers’ front office was intentionally trying to spite Rodgers and, for lack of a better term, simply torment him, what exactly would they be doing differently?

If they actually liked him, they would have made that clear by, uh, basically doing the complete opposite of everything they’ve done over the past few years with regards to Rodgers, the offense and the draft.

If they were fed up with him and couldn’t stand him because he’s difficult, a diva, high-maintenance, whatever, then wouldn’t they be thrilled to ship him out?

They clearly don’t like him. But they don’t hate him enough to want to ship him out–that probably has a lot to do with the fact that he won league MVP last year and threw 48 TDs vs. only 5 INTs.

So do they just want to hold him prisoner and then, when they think his skills are fading, dump him on the side of the road on their own terms? It really seems like it.

They’re basically like, “Here’s the deal, Aaron: we’re going to treat you like shit, and you’re gonna shut up and play football. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. You’ll get nothing and like it, Spalding.”

The Packers’ front office wants to have their cake and eat it, too: they want the MVP quarterback while treating him like an undrafted free agent on the practice squad. Sure, they pay him a hell of a lot of money, but literally 30 other teams in the NFL would pay Aaron the same amount of money–if not more–if they could. Not only that, but they’d bend over backwards for him–like Tampa has done for Tom Brady.

Back to the original quote from the top: the Packers apparently don’t believe Rodgers when he says he never wants to play for the Packers again. They think he’s full of it.

It really is amazing that after all the disrespect they’ve shown him, and the lengths they’ve gone to to piss him off, that they still don’t believe he’s for real about wanting out.

I think the Packers’ front office taking this stance on the matter is just gonna piss Rodgers off even more and make him more determined to hold out. If he really is as stubborn and prideful as people say he is, there is no way he will not drag this thing out as long as it takes.

It will reportedly “cost” him about $35 million to hold out, and that seems insane to normal people like us. But Aaron Rodgers has made a ton of money over his career, he’s engaged to a (presumably) wealthy actress, plus he can go be the host of Jeopardy while he holds out and recoup some of those lost millions. There are so many ways for a guy of Aaron Rodgers’ stature to make money, even just through his social media presence. He can probably charge $100k+ for a tweet. He can sign endorsement deals and cut commercials–he’s probably making millions from State Farm as it is.

I think he actually would forgo $35 million just to prove his point. Whatever it takes to get the hell out of Green Bay and away from that front office, I think Aaron Rodgers is ready to do it.