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Earlier today, we raised the question of whether the Aaron Rodgers drama was a factor in the egg that Packers laid in Jacksonville on Sunday. Coincidentally, Packers coach Matt LaFleur met with the media after our story was posted. And one of the reporters used our item as cover for raising the question with LaFleur.
“There’s a national media site that just before you got in her published a story saying that Rodgers’s uncertain status might have impacted things yesterday,” the reporter said, before asking LaFleur whether there’s anything to that.
“No, I think this team’s focused on now,” LaFleur replied. “And unfortunately, sometimes in this league you get humbled. And certainly we got humbled. Like I said, it’s about how we respond to that. How we come back to work. How we stay together. And get ready to play against a team I know is gonna be really hungry coming in here.”
The Packers should be able to handle the Lions on Monday night. If the Lions pull the upset and send the Packers to 0-2, Green Bay will be staring at a trip to San Francisco for the 49ers’ home opener — and quite possibly an 0-3 start.
Even if the Rodgers drama wasn’t a factor on Sunday, at some point it will be. Whether it’s his lack of involvement with teammates from January to late July, the possibility that he rushed a decision just before the start of the season and his heart’s really not in it, and/or a chance that if the season starts to crumble he may decide to walk away (or agitate for a trade), his broader status as it relates to the organization will become front and center if/when it appears that his swan song is morphing into an ugly duckling.
