With each day comes additional gossip about Aaron Rodgers' growing disdain for his own team, the Green Bay Packers. As the reigning NFL MVP reportedly campaigns for a move elsewhere -- all while privately poking fun at general manager Brian Gutekunst to his teammates -- all signs suggest a future divorce is more likely than not. Another Packers legend foresees as much, with Brett Favre saying Wednesday that Rodgers "ain't budging" from his feud with the Green Bay front office and predicting that the QB will follow through on reported plans to sit out -- or even retire -- if the Packers don't trade him before the 2021 season.
"Knowing Aaron, and I think I know him fairly well, if he has a grudge, whether it be against the organization or a player or an arch-rival, or family, friends, he ain't budging," Favre said on his "Boiling with Favre" podcast. "I don't see him coming back and ... if it's not resolved, or even if it's resolved but he feels like they have one up on him, he ain't gonna play. Knowing Aaron, he would sit. Now, he would forgo a lot of money, but he's also got a lot money."
Favre, of course, has plenty of history with Rodgers. The Hall of Fame QB infamously did not get along with Rodgers when the Packers drafted the latter as his eventual successor back in 2005, but the two have since become closer. So much so, in fact, that Favre told ESPN's "Wilde & Tausch" on Wednesday that Rodgers just recently touched base with him regarding his uncertain future in Green Bay.
"I just sent Aaron a message asking, 'Hey, am I going to see you playing for the Saints this year?'" Favre joked. "He replied saying, 'Thanks for checking on me. I'll touch base with you after all this is over.' And that was it ... His rift isn't with the fans, nor the players; it's with the front office. So will he swallow his pride and come in? Maybe, but I don't see that happening. If there's not a trade, my gut tells me he'd rather sit out than play."
Multiple reports have indicated as much. For what it's worth, Favre also believes that Gutekunst's first-round pick in the 2020 draft, Utah State QB Jordan Love, was one of the primary sparks in the fire that is Rodgers' broken relationship with the Packers.
"I do know that this is sort of been brewing since the last draft," he said on his podcast. "If you go back to the first-round pick, Jordan Love, who may end up being a great player ... it was a little bit of a head-scratcher, to me. (It was a ) great achievement for him to be drafted in the first round. But they lost the NFC Championship Game two seasons ago. You could make the argument that they were a player or a play or a couple plays away from being in the Super Bowl ... (Aaron) felt like he needed a little more help ... Fast-forward, they do nothing. They get a quarterback ... In this case, it's like, from an organization standpoint, it sends the message, in my opinion, that we're worried about our future."