Aaron Rodgers bitter Packers wanted to move on: 'I talk to the people that I like'

Look, you can't deny the absolute force of nature Aaron Rodgers was in Green Bay for well over a decade. He's a four-time NFL MVP and arguably the greatest thrower of the football to ever step foot on planet earth.

That doesn't mean the Packers weren't right for wanting to move on from Rodgers, though.

In a recent report on The Athletic, beat writer Matt Schneidman detailed a franchise that had set a succession plan in place — from Rodgers to Jordan Love, who the Packers moved up to draft with the 26th pick in 2020. 

Sure, Rodgers won two MVPs in a row after the selection of Love, but the trophy case at Lambeau Field remained unchanged.

In 2020-21, the Packers were ousted by Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game. In 2021-22, despite being the top seed in the NFC playoffs, the Packers lost to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field in a game in which Rodgers' offense put up only seven points.

Against the Detroit Lions in a must-win game to get into the playoffs, Rodgers threw for just 205 yards and a touchdown with a game-sealing interception.

Throw in the off-field drama plus the fact that Love had been growing as a quarterback while waiting in the wings and it makes sense that Green Bay was ready to move on from the future Hall of Famer.

The MVPs are great. Being one of the greatest to ever do it is great. But the fact of the matter is that the Packers were 1-4 in NFC Championship games under Rodgers and at the time of this writing their last Super Bowl win is over 10 years in the past.

Talking to Schneidman, Rodgers seemed to make it out that the messy divorce between the two sides ultimately came down to Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and the plan he enacted — and wouldn't stray away from — in 2020.

“Did Brian text me more than I texted him? Yeah, but did I ghost him? No,” Rodgers said. “I texted him back. There was back-and-forths that we had and so this is the story you wanna go with? You’re gonna stand on this hill of austerity and say that arguably in the conversation of the best player in your franchise history, you’re gonna say I couldn’t get a hold of him and that’s why we had to move on?

“Like, c’mon man. Just tell the truth, you wanted to move on. You didn’t like the fact that we didn’t communicate all the time. Like, listen, I talk to the people that I like.”

The Packers did want to move on, and Rodgers' "I talk to the people that I like" comment suggests that perhaps he's still bitter about that.

That doesn't make Green Bay's decision wrong, though. The results were the results, and Rodgers just couldn't get the Packers back over the hump.