By RICK SOLEM
ricks@mwfbroadcasting.com
Aaron Rodgers is out. Again.
Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Friday, “As an organization, we are not ready for him to play. That’s where we are.”
Nothing about whether Rodgers, as a person, is ready to play, but he hasn’t been medically cleared.
Does that mean the team, or team doctors, won’t clear him simply because they don’t see this team winning in the playoffs and it’s not worth the injury risk bringing him back or, he’s physically not ready? Who knows?
Rodgers, himself, wants to play … or says he wants to play … or, at least, McCarthy said Rodgers said he wants to play – did you get that? – but that’s an easy thing to say when you haven’t been cleared to play by the team.
“I think Aaron clearly wants to play,” McCarthy said. “He’s done everything he possibly can from his end of it. But he understands how the organization feels. And everything was laid out on the table, and the organization is not ready for him to play.”
Organization this. Organization that. Blah blah blah.
Everything McCarthy spits out feels like the garbage a robot would be programmed to say.
‘The organization … has programmed me … to refer to everything … from its perspective … instead of me … just talking to you … like a human (in robot voice).
More robotics: “Just as I’ve stated all along, we’ve got two different circumstances here,” McCarthy recited. “We’ve got Aaron Rodgers’ health, and obviously where we are as a football team. Until we feel good about where Aaron is medically, that will not be part of the second circumstance. So as an organization, we are not ready for him to play.”
Why can’t he just talk to the media like a human. Why can’t he just tell it how it is, ‘Rodgers isn’t healed yet. It sucks. We want him healed so he can play, but he’s not. If we could hire Gandolf the Grey to come heal him, we would, but he wasn’t available. I think he’s working on the third movie in the Hobbit trilogy.”
There, McCarthy. Say that. Get some nerds on board with the team and be funny. Is it as simple as Rodgers isn’t healed? You’d think so, but “the organization” talk makes it seem so weird.
It all feels like smoke and mirrors. Maybe to keep the opposition guessing. Maybe to keep the fans hoping. Maybe it’s the simple fact that it’s cold at Lambeau Field in December and bones are more brittle in the cold. Or maybe he just isn’t healed! It’s that simple. Or could be.
Frankly, it’s getting annoying, because they probably never had intentions of him playing at all this season because this team isn’t winning the Super Bowl with Rodgers.
The 30-year-old quarterback was splitting reps in practice as early as Wednesday. Getting just enough reps to keep us on the edge of our seats, I suppose.
Rodgers did not speak to reporters Friday.
Heading into the regular-season finale at Chicago – and, right now, a half game behind ‘da Bears’ for the division – Rodgers will have been out two months, which is the high end of the six-to-eight week timetable he was given to return.
Coincidentally, Rodgers was injured against the Bears in Week 9.