After several months of offseason drama, the standoff between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers is getting down to crunch time. The next big date for the two sides will come on July 27 when the Packers are scheduled to report for training camp.
At this point, no one seems to know if Rodgers is actually going to show up. Mason Crosby isn't sure how this is all going to play out, but during a recent interview, the Packers kicker explained why he's still hopeful that the quarterback will report on time.
"Every time I talk to him, text him, whatever, I leave it with, 'See ya in July.' Just keep feeding that thing, positive [reinforcement], just 'See ya in July,'" Crosby said on The Wild and Tausch Show in Wisconsin. "As long as he doesn't say, 'No, I'm not coming.' It's hopeful that he'll be there."
Whatever Rodgers is going to do, he's definitely done a good job of keeping his plans to himself. Crosby and Rodgers are close friends and clearly, the quarterback hasn't even given his friend a heads up on what he might do.
Rodgers has only talked about his situation a total of two times over the past two months and in both instances, he didn't divulge very much information. Back in May, Rodgers had the chance to downplay the drama during an interview with ESPN, but he didn't do that. The second interview took place on July 6 during a golf match against Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson and at that time, Rodgers said he was going to figure things out in "a couple weeks."
Not only has it now been a couple of weeks with no word from Rodgers about his future plans, but the Packers report to training camp in just five days, which adds some suspense to the situation.
According to Crosby, everyone is doing everything they can to convince Rodgers to come back.
"The goal is that everyone is doing every thing they can to get [Rodgers] back and have him in the building and to go and try to win a championship," Crosby said. "With Aaron at quarterback, we have a great team. We have the foundation to go and get it done. I'm not saying someone else can't step in and surprise us, but Aaron's our guy. He's a great teammate, been an awesome friend for a long time. I can't imagine what it would be like without him showing up."
The people who know Rodgers the best seem to think that he might show up. Former Packers star A.J. Hawk -- who recently spent some time with Rodgers -- said last week that he thinks the QB will be in Green Bay this year.
The problem for the Packers is that Rodgers' biggest issue seems to be with Green Bay's front office and if the team doesn't make any changes there, it won't be surprising if this rift lasts well into August.
