Super Sunday’s Sunday Splash! reports included an item from Ian Rapoport of NFL Media that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers planned to start his voluntary solitary confinement on Monday.
It didn’t happen. As evidenced by the fact that Rodgers was in the daylight on Tuesday, doing his weekly paid spot with Pat McAfee and former Green Bay teammate A.J. Hawk. Rodgers took some time to call out those who have, in his view, reported erroneous facts about him.
“There’s an inner circle and in my inner circle, nobody talks to Ian Rapoport [or] Adam Schefter or to any of those people,” Rodgers said, via Chris Mason of MassLive.com. “Just stop with the fake news. I speak for myself and I will continue to do that.
“I have no problem with Ian Rapoport, [Adam] Schefter, I think they’re really good at their jobs. When it comes to me, they don’t know shit. They really don’t. They don’t have people in my inner circle who are sources. I can promise you that. Anybody who would talk to them is not in my inner circle. It’s that simple. So I’ve had this plan on the books for four months, for the same time. When someone like that goes on and says something that’s not true it creates a story that’s [expletive].” (Usually, the expletive is obvious, and we’ll add the actual word. For this one, I’d just be guessing from three or four possible choices.)
It’s unclear why Schefter was mentioned. He didn’t report that Rodgers was about to lock himself in a closet for 96 hours. Schefter’s reports of late regarding Rodgers haven’t broken much actual ground beyond the things Rodgers has said himself, or that were otherwise obvious. For example, Schefter reported there’s a “very real possibility” that Rodgers will be traded days after Rodgers’s comments to McAfee and Hawk made it obvious that a trade is indeed a very real possibility.
“How many [expletive] narratives can come from one [appearance last week] where they didn’t even actually listen to what I said?” Rodgers added. “Or the intent? Or the tone? And again, nothing against Rapoport, but he doesn’t have anybody who knows legitimately what’s going on in my life. So for him to say something, ‘Monday through Thursday I was supposed to be in there,’ that was never the plan. It hasn’t been the plan for four months. So don’t make [expletive] up. I don’t have your number, you’re not gonna have my number, you do a great job, but not when it comes to my life, so stop talking about it.”
There’s a difference between creating or construing narratives and reporting facts. Rapoport reported a fact. And he surely got the information from a source that he believes was in the right position to know it was accurate.
Hell, we can’t rule out the possibility that Rodgers was sufficiently upset that the information got out from the inner circle of his inner circles that he changed his plans, if only to make the report look erroneous. It definitely would not be the first time the subject of a report pivoted to a new approach once the prior one came to light, whether for spite or some actual strategic reason.
Regardless, Rodgers needs to realize that he can’t have fame and attention on his own terms. If he’s going to regularly speak to the world about his thoughts and plans, others will try to find out more about them. Others will talk about them, possibly seizing on narratives that Rodgers didn’t intend, because not everyone will accurately solve the beautiful mysteries he tries to build.
So, Aaron, if you want us to stop talking about you, there’s one specific thing you can do to achieve that objective.
Stop talking.