The “very important event” that kept Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers from attending the first day of mandatory minicamp will extend to today.
Via Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com, Rodgers is skipping the full mandatory minicamp.
Jets coach Robert Saleh hinted at this on Tuesday, when he said that quarterback Tyrod Taylor will have the opportunity to run the two-minute offense “today and tomorrow.”
Russini adds this, which suggests there was no “event” that Rodgers prioritized over attending the mandatory camp: "[H]e prefers to be somewhere else away from football.”
Hey, we all prefer (at times, if not constantly) to not do our jobs. But when we’re expected to show up, we do. And it doesn’t matter that Rodgers was present for all of the voluntary workouts. There’s a two-day mandatory minicamp. It’s the centerpiece of the offseason program. It always happens in June.
Every player is required to attend. And for Rodgers, who played four snaps last year and ended the season by declaring that "[a]nything that doesn’t have anything to do with winning needs to be assessed” and that "[i]t’s not a half the time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most of the time thing, it’s an every time thing” and that “the bullshit that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building,” for him to not be in the building for the mandatory minicamp is the epitome of bullshit.
Especially if he didn’t have a good reason for being absent.
The fact that no one knows the specific reason for the absence is telling. Saleh wasn’t asked that specific question on Tuesday. Our own communications with the team on the issue bordered on an Abbott and Costello routine.
It’s a fair question, because there’s a chance that (if fans knew where he was), they’d conclude that it’s objectively reasonable for Rodgers to prioritize the other thing over football.
It’s very possible there was no specific “event,” and that Rodgers just decided not to attend. Which he has the right to do if he’s willing to pay the fines. But it sends a horrible message, especially given his plea to the team to shed “the bullshit that has nothing to do with winning.”
As mentioned on Wednesday’s PFT Live, where we relentlessly criticized Rodgers and the Jets for what has become a massive and unexpected unforced error, Rodgers is ready for a career in politics, because he has already mastered the nonchalant hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing another.
And as it relates to whatever he’s doing, the current circumstances have us formulating Google searches aimed at finding ayahuasca retreats. As it turns out, one started in Peru on Wednesday — and another one started in Colombia.
Wherever he is, he’s not with the team for a mandatory minicamp. Whatever the reason, if it was a truly good reason, we’d know what it is.
