The revelation of the Aaron Rodgers news on the first day of the 2021 NFL Draft was an “accumulation of information” gathered throughout the offseason rather than a breaking report that the reigning NFL MVP wanted out of Green Bay, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said Thursday.
Schefter went on “The Dan Patrick Show” to explain why he sat on the news of Rodgers’ spat with the Packers until hours before last week’s NFL Draft. The ESPN insider added that neither Rodgers nor his camp were the source of his reporting.
“That is absolutely accurate, correct. It was nothing that morning that came in that all of a sudden said to me, ‘Yeah, he wants out, you should report this’. . . . It was just an accumulation of information,” Schefter said, adding that he went with the story once it was reported elsewhere Thursday morning that the San Francisco 49ers had inquired about Rodgers’ availability.
“I said, ‘How long until it gets out now that Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay?’” Schefter said. “It’s gonna come out. What does it matter if it comes out now or next week or next month.”
Schefter’s original tweet on the morning of the draft, however, suggested a different timeline: “Reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers is so disgruntled with the Green Bay Packers that he has told some within the organization that he does not want to return to the team, league and team sources told ESPN on Thursday.”
That tweet sparked a frenzy of reports from various outlets about Rodgers’ status and his relationship with the Green Bay front office for the remainder of draft weekend.
“The funny part about it is I’ve heard people say that Aaron Rodgers wanted that out before the Draft and I can assure you that Aaron Rodgers did not want that out before the Draft,” Schefter said. “I’ve had people say the Green Bay Packers planted that. It was a very pro-Packers story. I can assure you the Green Bay Packers didn’t plant that.
“This was an accumulation, all during the offseason of just listening to people talk and observing. … So your antenna’s up and I’m just telling you throughout the course of the offseason, there was rarely a week that went by that I didn’t hear something about Aaron Rodgers.”
