We’ve talked at length about the “organizational decision” by the Green Bay Packers to sit quarterback Aaron Rodgers for a seventh consecutive week on Sunday. There was a report that said Ted Thompson was ultimately the decision maker and he probably was.
However, Chris Mortensen has reported that it was Rodgers who was behind the now-famous “organizational decision.” To put it another way, Rodgers didn’t want to have his toughness questioned, so he asked coach Mike McCarthy to put the burden on Big Ted.
“A CT scan of Aaron Rodgers’ fractured left collarbone still showed extraordinary risk if he returned to the football field today, according to sources,” Mortensen said. “So why the emphasis on organizational decision by Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy on Friday to the point where McCarthy mentioned it eight or nine times by media count? That’s because Rodgers insisted vehemently on a message of organizational decision, sources said, with an emphasis that he is a tough guy. One source says the quarterback’s sensitivity that his injury absence would be compared to Brett Favre’s reputation for toughness was a driving force behind McCarthy’s message, which created a palpable tension between the coach and the quarterback. And sources say McCarthy clearly understood Dr. Patrick McKenzie’s unwillingness to give Rodgers medical clearance and there was no real organizational decision about it. It was medical.”
So what does this tell us? Well, it tells us that even while he’s out being Santa Claus, Rodgers is worried about what we think about him.
Frankly, it wouldn’t really have mattered either way. If the doc says he can’t play, then he can’t play. It does’t matter who says he can’t play and how they say it.
I mean, we all know the Packers aren’t going to the Super Bowl this season. Through a bunch of terrible play by their division rivals, they somehow still have a chance to go to the playoffs, though.
Isn’t it time to come to some finality at this point? Shut him down for the season and be done with it or tell us he can play this week with the playoffs on the line.