Plenty of people not employed by the front office of the Green Bay Packers liked Wednesday’s unvarnished press conference from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. That group included Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.
“People like to sugarcoat shit,” Murray told reporters on Friday, via Darren Urban of the team’s official website. “I Iove how honest he was.”
It’s an intriguing comment from Murray, because even with only two seasons in the NFL he has explained that he has influence over the team’s draft decisions, as he believes he should.
And he’s right. Rodgers, Murray, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady. Any true franchise quarterback deserves a seat at the management table, because their teams already expect them to behave like management -- arrive early, stay late, hold teammates accountable, deliver messages that will have more potency from a teammate than from a member of the coaching staff. It’s unfair to freeze those players out from significant decisions regarding the players who will be on the team.
This doesn’t mean that players like Rodgers and Murray should be given final say or anything close to it. It does mean that they should have a voice, a voice that isn’t ignored or politely listened to but not heard. A real voice, and a real chance to use it.
Rodgers, after 17 years with the Packers, has gotten sick of his own voice not being heard by the Green Bay front office. So he’s using that voice elsewhere. It won’t improve the fractured relationship between Rodgers and the powers that be, but it definitely will win him respect for quarterbacks who are or will be in similar predicaments, now and in the future.
