Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers continues to be one of the most vocal opponents of the addition of a 17th regular season in the proposed CBA.
The short version of Rodgers’ argument: A 17-game season never should have been on the table, and the players aren’t getting nearly enough in negotiations for an extra game.
“I go back to the 17th game. The fact that it even got in there when – the guys that I talked to around the league – every meeting that was had before these negotiations got amped up, nobody wanted 17 games,” Rodgers said Friday on the “Wilde and Tausch” podcast on ESPN Wisconsin. “A lot of us are wondering how the hell that even got into the conversation because nobody wanted it.”
Rodgers bemoaned the lack of negotiation from the owners’ side on the issue and said the players’ return for the 17th game “wasn’t substantial enough.” Minimum salaries might be going up, but players still aren’t getting a 50-50 split on revenue and life-time health care wasn’t part of negotiations.
Last month, Rodgers, the Packers player representative, explained his “no” vote on the new CBA proposal in a lengthy statement posted to his social media accounts. Once again, he mentioned his surprise over conceding the addition of a 17th game.
“16 games to me, was never something to be negotiated,” Rodgers wrote. “The owners made it clear that the 17th game is about paying the for ‘added’ benefits, and had nothing to do with positive feedback received about any extra risks involved with the added regular season game.”
The proposed CBA is out for a vote with players and could soon be ratified. Rodgers lacked confidence in the vote, signaling a lack of “critical thinking” and possibly a lack of true interest from fellow players, noting he received only a few scattered responses on an e-mail sent to Packers players about the new CBA.
Rodgers hasn’t gotten the answers he’s wanted from anyone during the process.
“Are we taking care of former players? What kind of additional player risks are we taking on? What are we getting in return for that? That’s the issue that I’ve had,” Rodgers said.
