New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers created headlines, as he always does, back in June when he was a no-show for mandatory minicamp.
Instead, he took a trip to Egypt, which was already planned and something that the Jets were aware of, though head coach Robert Saleh did not seem all too thrilled that the future Hall of Famer was not there.
“Selfishly, I want our guys here all the time, but when you get to these mandatory things, you make the best decision for yourself,” Saleh said. “Obviously, selfishly, I want all of them here all the time, but he made a decision and that’s where he went.”
Appearing on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, Rodgers tried to clarify that his entire absence was overblown due to the way such offseason events are labeled.
“The thing that people don’t understand is that when I was in the NFC North playing for [the Green Bay Packers] years ago, there used to be a real thing called minicamp where you had one of them and it was normally right after the draft,” Rodgers said. “Anyway, it was usually five practices in three days. Now, it’s not minicamp. They can arbitrarily put a tag on whatever week of OTAs that they want and say, ‘This is the minicamp week,’ which somehow makes it more mandatory than the other weeks. But it was an OTA schedule.
“That’s how words can be a little deceiving from time to time. They can make a story out of the fact that I missed a minicamp but it was really two OTA days. I came to the first 10.”
Regardless, Rodgers said that he still expected to be fined for missing those days.
The 40-year-old will be at team facilities come Tuesday, though, for the official start of training camp. This will be Rodgers’ first full season with Gang Green after he was traded from the Packers last offseason. His Jets debut, however, lasted just four snaps as he suffered a torn Achilles. Now fully healthy, Rodgers is expected to lead the Jets to their first playoff appearance since the 2010 season.
