That low season, Rodgers stewed privately and in public appearances on podcasts, and even as he guest-hosted the TV sport present “Jeopardy!” The pressure reached a head in April 2021, when ESPN reported that Rodgers had requested to be traded.
In July 2021, Rodgers skipped obligatory minicamp however later attended coaching camp, addressing the rift in his first information convention. “I just expressed my desire to be more involved in conversations directly affecting my job,” he mentioned, explaining his want for extra of a function within the crew’s personnel choices.
But the season was outlined as a lot by Rodgers’s efficiency as the explanations for his absences. He examined optimistic for the coronavirus in November, months after he had informed reporters that he was “immunized” towards the illness. Rodgers that month decried the league’s vaccination mandate and “woke culture” in two podcast interviews. The N.F.L. later fined him $14,650 for violations of the protocols for unvaccinated gamers, which included not sporting a masks throughout his weekly information conferences and attending a Halloween occasion.
Despite the conflicts, Rodgers once more excelled within the 2021 season, throwing 37 landing passes to simply 4 interceptions, main the N.F.L. in passer ranking and guiding the Packers to a 13-4 document throughout one other M.V.P. marketing campaign. The crew misplaced within the divisional spherical of the playoffs, however that low season Rodgers signed a three-year contract extension with a reported $150 million in assured cash.
In March 2022, the Packers traded Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Packers’ offense struggled. Green Bay missed the playoffs, dropping its closing sport of the season to the Detroit Lions, a crew Rodgers has crushed 18 occasions in his profession.
After the sport, Rodgers informed a Lions participant requesting his jersey that he “was going to keep this one,” implying that it might need private significance. Throughout the low season, Rodgers had been brutally sincere about his relationship with the Packers and gave imprecise and cryptic solutions about his future within the N.F.L.
As stories of Rodgers’s curiosity within the Jets hit social media within the weeks main as much as the commerce, Jets gamers overtly vied for his companies. Ahmad Gardner, the Jets cornerback often known as Sauce, wore a Packers fan’s cheesehead hat after the crew beat Green Bay final season. He burned the hat alongside other Jets teammates on a video meant to recruit Rodgers.
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