Aaron Rodgers once again floats retirement talk as offseason looms
This sounds familiar.
In the midst of a heated playoff race with the NFC's No. 1 seed at stake for the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was asked on Wednesday about retirement. As in, would he consider the prospect this offseason?
The reigning NFL MVP was happy to broach the subject.
"I wouldn't rule that out," Rodgers said, per NFL Network. "I think that I'm just enjoying this season for this season. I think that playing next year will definitely be in the thought process."
And thus begins the offseason of Aaron Rodgers drama with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
It's easy to call Rodgers' fielding the question as a look-at-me diversion at a critical juncture of the season. But this has been his 2021 M.O. From "COVID toe" to COVID misinformation to pretending that "immunized" means vaccinated, Rodgers has been one of football's biggest distractions in 2021.
Through it all, he's been his otherworldly self on the football field. The Packers are 12-3 and hold the inside track to the NFC's lone playoff bye. Meanwhile, Rodgers is the betting favorite to claim his fourth league MVP trophy.
Not even a season filled with controversy connected to a pandemic can thwart Rodgers' Hall of Fame focus and talent on the football field. So of course he feels comfortable discussing something as relatively benign as offseason football transactions in Week 17.
Wednesday's "revelation" is old-school Rodgers spectacle dating back to draft day and the bombshell report that he wanted out of Green Bay. That was followed by another report that he would consider retiring rather than play for the Packers again.
Rodgers, of course, didn't retire. But he was happy to confirm during training that he did, indeed, consider it.
“It was definitely something I thought about,” Rodgers told reporters of retirement in July. “But there is still a big competitive hole in my body that I need to fill.”
And now he's floating the subject again.
Forgive us if we decide to believe it when we see it.
