Thread by @TundraVision

My #Packers rant:

Why am I more upset at Aaron Rodgers than anyone else on the team?

Because Rodgers made me believe in "The Last Dance", when every fiber of my being had consistently said, FOR YEARS, we needed to move on for the betterment of the team in the long run. /1

Me, 2018: We need to avoid any long-term deals with Rodgers, tag him until we can't tag him anymore, and hand the reins to the next guy. We can't bury our future cap in overpaying one guy.

#Packers, 2018: Signs Rodgers to a cap-crippling $134M extension.

Me: Why?

/2

Me, 2021: That was our All In Year. We can't re-resign all these veterans without crippling the cap even more down the line. We need to trade Rodgers for max trade capital, as well as other overpriced veterans.

#Packers, 2021: Extended Bahk, Jones, Clark. All In Again.

/3

Me, 2021: Rodgers is being a huge me-first guy and this isn't good for BK, MLF, or anyone. This is a tempest in a teapot. It's time to trade him for max value and get out of this mess.

#Packers, #2021: Begs Rodgers to stay, signs Cobb to placate him.

/4

All of this was done with me, pragmatically, saying you are mortgaging your future for one more year with a guy who can't get past an NFCCG and can't stop playing hero ball when the chips are down,

And then came "The Last Dance".

#Packers
/5

Summoning the spirit of Michael Jordan & the Bulls, Rodgers put it out there that this was it: pulling out all the stops for one last run before Jerry Krause blows up the team.

I went against EVERYTHING I'd been saying for years. The guarantee of a trophy was worth it, right? /6

I went to more games this year than I have the last four years combined. I wanted to be a part of this magical year that Rodgers promised. He would be the Jordan, raising those around him and doing whatever it took to win it all, even if it was to spite his GM.

#Packers

/7

And THAT is the problem: I--and we--believed the Rodgers was just as invested as we were in The Last Dance. We thought he had the same passion to win that we did.

But in the end, he did not.

Oh, sure, he had an MVP regular season, again. But then, the playoffs. Again. /8

After one promising drive, Rodgers reverted to his same, lazy, hero-ball form, playing uninspired ball, ignoring his reads and check-downs to feed the ball to his BFF Davante Adams. We stared in horror as the Last Dance fell apart.

All of that for nothing.

#Packers

/9

But Rodgers' post-game presser, combined with his unattached, me-first dialogue all season on the McAffee show, showed us that Rodgers was never in this the way Jordan was with the Bulls.

Nothing was getting in Jordan's way.

Rodgers, as usual, got in his own way.

#Packers

/10

That's my anger with this entire situation: that I put my own beliefs on hold to support Rodgers' "promise" that All In was going to be worth it. And, I had been right all along: it wasn't.

And now, we will suffer the steep consequences for years.

#Packers

/11

All this, for a guy who spoke flippantly about making mistakes & forcing the ball like it was Week 3 of the regular season & we'd clean it up in practice.

Al this, for a guy who spoke dispassionately about not wanting to be a part of a #Packers rebuild after phoning it in.

/12

As fans suddenly start crying out that we should have traded him last summer for draft picks, I'm like...THAT'S WHAT I SAID ALL ALONG.

Until he made a promise he had no intention of keeping.

So, if that is the last of Aaron Rodgers in a #Packers jersey, I'm fine with it. /13

It's time to reap what we cheered Brian Gutekunst for sowing...a salary cap situation that will take a MINIMUM of two years to clear, only assuaged by the sacrifice of even MORE players with big contracts.

It's going to be tough. But it never had to be.

/14

As #Packers fans, we should have learned our lesson in 2007--that one guy isn't bigger than the team; isn't worth sacrificing the future for; and no matter how good they are, there's always someone waiting in the wings to pick up where they leave off.

Will we ever?

/15

fin