For most teams with a high-profile boycott, the next relevant development after the player skips mandatory minicamp becomes training camp. For the Packers, there’s another significant date on the calendar before the players report.
On July 26 at 11:00 a.m. CT, the Green Bay Packers shareholders will meet at Lambeau Field.
The status of quarterback Aaron Rodgers surely will dominate the day, unless the supposedly fixable situation is somehow fixed by then. It likely won’t be, and people like CEO Mark Murphy could face hostility from the fan base/ownership group that is supposedly (per Murphy) divided over the Rodgers situation.
Although it had seemed that Packers fans would be inclined to support the team, Murphy’s latest gratuitous remark regarding Rodgers seems to have sparked some rancor in support of Rodgers. Arguably for good reason. Murphy cited former G.M. Ted Thompson, who has died and thus can’t provide an explanation or content for his explanation to Murphy that Rodgers is a “complicated fella.”
One on hand, Murphy’s comment doesn’t mean much. Anyone who has paid any attention to the Packers in recent years already knows that Rodgers is indeed complicated. Moody, sensitive, prone to holding grudges. That’s Rodgers. But it also makes no sense to troll him, because Rodgers’ nature will make it far less likely that he’ll just let it go. It’s more likely that he’ll dig in.
It all adds up to some potential drama on July 26, with this year’s shareholders meeting potentially yielding something far more compelling that the annual look into the books of an NFL franchise.
