Over the years, we’ve seen multiple teams claim they have “no intention” to trade a given player. Not long before trading him.
Now, a player is using the “I” word. So when Aaron Rodgers says, “Since Friday, I made it clear that my intention was to play and my intention was to play for the Jets,” was he carving out the ability to eventually change his mind?
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think anything of it. But “intention” has become a somewhat loaded word in NFL circles. Then there’s the fact that Rodgers once deliberately hid behind another “I” word.
So fool me once, shame on you.
Rodgers had a reason (although not a good one) to play word games during the 2021 season. He potentially has a reason for playing word games now. If the Packers continue to take a hard line in trade negotiations with the Jets, Rodgers at some point could say, “Well, my intention has changed” and show up for work in Green Bay.
They owe him nearly $60 million this year. It will be paid out either in the form of an option bonus or base salary. Either way, there’s no way for the Packers to escape the obligation without trading him.
So if the front office insists on playing hardball, Rodgers can introduce some high heat to the equation by changing his mind and showing up in an effort to force Green Bay’s hand.
Rodgers also could change his “intention” about playing at all, and retire. Once the Packers realize they’d be getting nothing for his contract, maybe they’d take whatever they can get.
Here’s the point, for now. If Rodgers is smart enough to use “immunized” in a way to dance around the term “vaccinated,” he’s smart enough to know what it means to say expressly articulate the word “intention,” not once but twice.
Again, we’ve been down the Greg Brady “exact words” rabbit hole with Rodgers before. If we don’t see it potentially coming this time around, it’s fool me can’t get fooled again.