From time to time, people will say that Aaron Rodgers lives in the heads of various media members, rent free. The opposite may be the truth.
For someone who claims he doesn’t pay attention to the things being said about him, Rodgers seems to know everything that is being said about him.
On Wednesday, during his appearance with Pat McAfee, Rodgers complained about reports that Rodgers has a “wish list” of potential Jets teammates. In doing so, Rodgers twisted accounts of a “wish list” into a list of specific demands that he made, with an “or else” attached.
No one has ever reported it.
It was a list of names. Names that surely included the same names he rattled off in January when talking about the players he wants the Packers to keep.
“Do I love the guy on the list?” Rodgers said Wednesday. “Sure. Do I make demands on certain people? I mean, it’s just . . . . And it goes to this, like, people want these things to be so true. They’re like, I’m at this meeting dressed in ceremony (sic) regalia, giving them a kind of handwritten on parchment demand list of people to sign. . . . I have no demands.
“Look, my only requirement is transparency. And if you same shit, like sometimes it’s not even worth it. . . . But like I said, I don’t remember exactly — something like (Ian) Rapoport said or some shit . When something gets out there and is assumed to be true, then it can take on a life of its own. It can go from, ‘Oh, there’s a conversation about 20 different players’ to ‘Oh, he wants these guys signed , otherwise he will not come.’
Again, no one ever reported it. It has always been characterized as aspirational, not mandatory. And that shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner said last week that if Rodgers joins the Jets, there will be “package deals.”
Yet Rodgers is determined to characterize the reports as anything but what they were. And he seems to enjoy calling out specific reporters by name.
“Ask (Adam) Schefter what I texted him when he somehow got my number and texted me,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t answer Dianna Russini, I think her name is. . . . But I wanted to say the same thing I told Schefty. ‘Lost my number. Nice try.'”
On Wednesday, Aaron tried to make it look like reporters were reporting things they weren’t. And if that’s the attitude he’s going to take to the biggest media market in the world, then I better get a bigger popcorn popper.
