The New York Jets caused a big stir in June when they publicly said that Aaron Rodgers’ absence from the team’s mandatory minicamp was not excused.
Now we know where Rodgers was instead of camp. At the time, a reporter had said that Rodgers was on a trip halfway around the world.
On Monday, SNY Jets reporter Connor Hughes revealed that Rodgers was in Egypt on a trip that the quarterback had planned prior to minicamp.
Hughes says Rodgers believed that his trip would not overlap with minicamp at the time he made the plan.
Rodgers communicated with the Jets about the schedule conflict and understood it was important to the quarterback to go on the trip. It was still an unexcused absence though.
Rodgers is entering his second season with the Jets, though he barely had a first season. Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the first possession of his Jets career last season and missed the entire year. The 40-year-old is looking forward to having a much better experience in 2024.
Julian Edelman had a big warning for Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets over the recent drama involving the quarterback’s minicamp absence.
In an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” this week, Edelman said Rodgers and the Jets will face serious questions if the team gets off to a slow start. Edelman also noted that Tom Brady never skipped a mandatory minicamp even once he was in his 40s.
“I know a lot of people do things differently, but God forbid the New York Jets start 1-3 to begin the season,” Edelman warned. “They start with the 49ers, Tennessee, Patriots, (Broncos). We all know that the Patriots are no good, but that defense is still the same defense. And that’s who Aaron goes against. If they go 1-3, this is gonna be such a big distraction for that locker room because everybody’s going to be talking about it.
“I think it’s a bad look for your leader for whatever reason to go and miss an unexcused absence. I mean, I was with Tom Brady in his 23rd year, and he started missing OTAs here and there, but he was still there — never missed a mandatory minicamp.”
Edelman is correct that the questions will begin if Rodgers or the Jets do not perform well. For now, this does not appear to be an issue. There have even been some suggestions that Rodgers’ absence was, paradoxically, one the Jets were okay with even if they did not excuse it.
No matter what, the Rodgers situation has already created an avoidable distraction. The Jets can only hope it is largely forgotten by September.
There has been a lot of speculation about where Aaron Rodgers was this week when he decided not to attend mandatory minicamp, and some of it might be accurate.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters that Rodgers was not excused from mandatory practice on Tuesday and Wednesday but that the quarterback instead chose to “attend an event that was very important to him.” Naturally, there has been no shortage of theories about the nature of said “event.”
One Jets reporter said Rodgers planned a trip while he was rehabbing from his Achilles injury and before the offseason schedule came out. Many people speculated that Rodgers is on another ayahuasca retreat, as the four-time MVP has been open in the past about his experiences with the hallucinogenic plant.
During an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” Friday, Albert Breer of The MMQB seemed to hint that the ayahuasca talk might not be far off.
“The best I can answer this right now that I feel solid about is that he is somewhere that (the Jets) could not excuse and maintain credibility with the rest of the locker room, but would be expected — would not be an out-of-left-field thing for him,” Breer said. “You guys can open your minds, so to speak, as he’s been known to open his mind sometimes into all the possibilities that might create for him.”
It seemed pretty obvious what Breer was getting at. However, ESPN’s Rich Cimini said on his “Flight Deck” podcast this week that he does not think Rodgers is on a retreat involving ayahuasca.
“I do not believe he’s on a darkness retreat. I do not believe he’s on an ayahuasca retreat,” Cimini said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with RFK’s campaign or campaigning for RFK, I know that has come up. I think he’s on a vacation. I think he just took a trip far far away out of the country — like really far — like on the other side of the world.”
Copyright © 2024
Leave a Reply