Aaron Rodgers may or may not be healthy, but generally wants to play. That sounds like pride as much as anything else.
But Packers interim coach Joe Philibin told reporters he hasn’t talked to management about the possibility of benching Rodgers for a meaningless last two weeks in favor of backup DeShone Kizer (which more than anything makes him sound like an interim coach).
“I think when you sign up for the 2018 NFL season, you sign up for a 16-game season and hopefully you earn the opportunity to extend that and to compete for a championship,” Philbin said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “Obviously the extension part is over. That being said, you’re a football player, you’re part of a team and your one role is to the contribute to the overall success of the team. And the team has an opportunity to win a game Sunday against the New York Jets, and if our players, they should want to participate because they’re good teammates and they should. I think that’s their obligation to the team. So we’ll see. If there are other discussions contrary to that, we’ll certainly cross that bridge and discuss it.
“Again, I think it’s bigger than Aaron Rodgers. This is a football team. You’re a football player. You’re employed by the Green Bay Packers just like if players or coaches were to say, ‘Geez I’d like to go home tonight and not prepare as hard for this game because we’re not going to the playoffs,’ I mean, that’s not a professional approach to the job, I don’t think.”
Of course, it’s a much bigger question than that kind of Knute Rockne speech implies, and the medical condition of the franchise quarterback’s a different situation. Rodgers has played through a left knee injury suffered in the opener, and injured his groin just before halftime of Sunday’s game, stretching it throughout the second half and saying “it bothered me a little bit.”
That’s created a reasonable uncertainty for a 5-8-1 team, playing on the road against a 4-10 Jets team which isn’t going to the playoffs either — but is trying to sell tickets.
