Green Bay Packers: Aaron Rodgers frustrated or just media smokescreen?

Sports journalists are always looking for an eye-popping story. With the latest reports surrounding Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, how do we separate fact from fiction?

Aaron Rodgers is selfish. Aaron Rodgers is smug. Aaron Rodgers is cocky. We’ve heard it all before, but the latest media scrum is how Rodgers is reportedly ‘frustrated with being frozen out of personnel decisions’ with the Green Bay Packers.

According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, an unnamed source close to Rodgers said he’s grown disgruntled with the Packers’ recent roster moves. Such moves include replacing quarterbacks’ coach Alex Van Pelt and releasing Jordy Nelson, both of whom are Rodgers’ good friends.

The unnamed source also claimed Rodgers is “thinking about that stuff when it comes to the next contract because he should have earned a voice by now” and that other elite quarterbacks around the league are given careful consideration when evaluating personnel decisions.

The report is the latest buzz surrounding Rodgers, just a week after another report stated he ‘doesn’t seem to feel valued’ by the Packers’ front office. This was prompted by Rodgers’ comments on a radio interview a few weeks ago. Jason Wilde of ESPN Wisconsin wrote a piece detailing the comments, wherein the interview, Rodgers stated:

"“I think it’s pretty clear that players play, and coaches coach, and personnel people make their decisions … that’s the way they want it.”"

With the start of the Packers’ offseason program, Rodgers recently spoke to the media regarding Nelson and other offseason activities, shown in the tweet below:

"“… As humans we have personal connections to people … but the organization’s making decisions that they feel like are in the best interest of our team, and you got to trust the process.”"

Although some comments from the past few months may seem passive aggressive, is Rodgers actually that upset? Better yet, does he have validity in his disgruntlement?

It boils down to this: like everyone else, Rodgers is human (despite the plays he makes on the field). Just like any life event that doesn’t go the way we want, Rodgers is bound to be upset when a best friend moves away or someone says something he disagrees with.

Packers fans can relax though. Rodgers took to Twitter on Tuesday, showing his smart-alec personality, by sarcastically tweeting the following:

The tweet was a response to the Packers official Twitter account, which read: “Packers QB Aaron Rodgers talks offseason changes”.  Rodgers was clearly poking fun at the mainstream media’s latest rumors in his reply.

Rodgers also retweeted a sarcastic statement from former teammate AJ Hawk:

Finally, Rodgers said recently “there’s more than mutual interest” regarding contract negotiations with the Packers.

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After seeing all that, it’s safe to say Rodgers understands the circumstances. Whether he’ll use these accusations as bait in contract negotiations remains to be seen. The fact he was willing to make light of the situation shows Packers fans they have no reason to be concerned. As a famous man once said, “R-E-L-A-X”.