If potential Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was attempting to turn himself into a sympathetic figure during his appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, it backfired.
That’s the opinion of Mark Madden during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast.
“I don’t know that it did him harm. But it made everybody think, ‘Boy, what’s this guy talking about? What’s he going to do? Does he really want to play? Isn’t he just stringing this along,’” Madden said. “I think he lost credibility. He presented himself as a victim, which nobody is buying.”
In particular, Madden thinks Rodgers’ claim that he’ll play this season for $10 million — in Pittsburgh, or anywhere else — is bogus.
“That’s a flat-out lie. That’s why I think he is not going to play. Because if he never plays, then that claim that he would have played for only $10 million can never be proven false. It can never be proven a lie,” Madden said.
Madden also said Rodgers failed in his attempt to build a strawman about the media falsifying sources and leaks about his future plans.
“He talked about having been slandered. He doesn’t know the meaning of that word. He’s not been slandered once. Nobody’s put much out there about him at all. He’s the one talking about having his personal problems. That came right from (his) mouth,” Madden said. “A total narcissist, having personal problems? That’s very hard for me to imagine.”
Regardless of how Madden dislikes Rodgers’ presentation, he seems to be on board with Rodgers’ greater point that he is still undecided about playing for the Steelers now, waiting for a better option, or potentially retiring.
“Rodgers doesn’t appear to be close to a commitment. That said, the Steelers don’t appear to be close to putting him at a decision — not close to imposing a deadline,” Madden said. “But I just think that the talk he had on ‘McAfee’ indicates he doesn’t want to play for a team he doesn’t feel can win. He had every opportunity to say, ‘If I’m going to play, it’s going to be with the Steelers.’ But he pointedly said he’s not attached to anybody or any team.”
Because of that, Madden suggests we might have to change our eye level on who may be the Week 1 starting quarterback in Pittsburgh.
“If you had to bet, you’d bet on Mason Rudolph,” Madden concluded. “There’s a good chance they panic-draft a quarterback with the 21st pick in the first round — be it (Jaxson) Dart or (Shedeur) Sanders. But if I had to bet right now, I would bet Mason Rudolph.”
Also, during the podcast, Madden and I discuss the state of the Penguins heading into the offseason, the mangled start of the Pirates, “The Great Pittsburgh Sports Debate,” Liverpool soccer and Public Enemy opening for Guns N’ Roses.
