In two separate sessions with the tough-questions-only New York media, no one asked Jets coach Robert Saleh this question: If Aaron Rodgers didn’t show up for mandatory minicamp, where is he?
If asked the question, Saleh likely wouldn’t have disclosed Rodgers’s whereabouts.
The Jets have declined to provide that information, on or off the record. Saleh, if pressed on the issue, would have said (I believe) something along the lines that it’s the quarterback’s personal business, and it’s for him to say what it was.
The next question is whether Rodgers will disclose where he was, when asked. He undoubtedly will be. Even if the safest of safe-space podcasts, he needs to be asked what was more important than showing up for mandatory minicamp.
It also will be interesting to see what Rodgers thinks about how the Jets handled the situation. There’s a chance he keeps that to himself. There’s also a chance, as we saw during his first press conference of training camp in 2021, he’ll go off on the team.
Despite their private characterization to multiple reporters that the Jets believed excusing the absence would set a precedent that could be used against them later, they could have excused the absence. They didn’t.
The Jets would argue that, even if they had, it still would have been a big deal. Others would argue that, if Saleh had simply said on Tuesday morning that Rodgers has been present for all of the voluntary offseason program and he’s an excused absence for the two-day minicamp, it would have been a story — but it wouldn’t have been the story of the week.
Regardless, unless Rodgers says something between now and the start of training camp, we won’t know what was more important than showing up for mandatory minicamp until he meets with reporters at the outset of preseason practices.
Unless he has someplace better to be then, too.
