Aaron Rodgers slander is back and the hosts of SPEAK don’t fail to ever make it funny. While people are bashing the New York Jets’ QB left and right, A-Rod’s ride or die, James Jones found himself under duress after comparing the 4x MVPs absence to that of Micah Parsons. The Packers’ ex-WR thinks that Rodgers’ absence was deserved.

It’s important to understand why Aaron Rodgers is getting flamed so much. He’s in New York, playing with one of the most historically rich franchises and making wads of cash at the same time. The fact that no major QB missed the mandatory training camp has also added fuel to the fire. It got everyone thinking whether Aaron Rodgers thought that he was better than everyone else. Still, James Jones had a few things to say in defense of A-Rod.

“I’m proud of my dude for saying…taking some time to himself, planning his trip to go to Italy…Egypt because he’s been at everything. If I’ve been at everything for the last two years and I’m a four-time MVP, All-Pro, whatever you want to say. Super Bowl champion all that, hey listen, I deserve to get two days since I’ve been here, been the ultimate teammate when I’m hurt, when I’m not all of that.,” said James Jones.

It’s obvious Aaron Rodgers’ absence from “mandatory” minicamp was “unexcused” and he was off shores. Take Micah Parsons for instance. He was holding out because he wanted a new contract and missed the OTAs. He eventually showed up to the mandatory workouts and the Cowboys picked him up on the 5 year option, although as the DE. But Rodgers’ situation is different because he went on to learn about ancient medication in a far off land.

There’s one more thing that’s bothering people and it’s Rodgers’ presence in the T-Mobile Arena. He went to see the UFC 303 in Las Vegas before addressing his absence. That’s also another narrative floating around the media landscape. He was kicking it with his former teammate Mercedes Lewis watching Pereira vs Procházka. But the thing is, Rodgers did inform the Jets that he had to leave to attend to things that were “important to him.”

Still, the team decided to not divulge any information until they were asked. Maybe they didn’t know that this would blow out of proportion. In the process of doing so, Rodgers racked about a fine of $101k. So, what was so important in Egypt, that Rodgers risked losing a hefty chunk of money and caused so much drama? As explained earlier, Rodgers reportedly wanted to learn about ancient medication focused on inner healing.

Things till the point of voluntary OTAs were not bad at all. Rodgers kept working out and healed himself. Then he started taking meetings, being on the sidelines  and other things. Would it be too crazy to assume that having a player like Aaron Rodgers can boost the team’s morale? In the past, when he was hurt, he did try to help Zach Wilson with his signal calling. Although in hindsight that didn’t age well, but the point is, to some extent, James Jones might be right. Or is he?

He pointed out something that might be asinine for some people to think of. He compared Micah Parsons’ absence from voluntary OTAs to the big question mark that A-Rod left in the media. The room got a bit louder when James Jones said, “There’s a lot of quarterbacks and players that miss voluntary workouts,” and added later, “So y’all messing me up. So, you’re cool with Aaron Rodgers saying like Micah, hell with the whole OTAs, I’m just going to come for three days of minicamp?

Again, they spoke of voluntary and Micah Parsons skipping his training camp had an entirely different reason behind it. If all the sports debate’s all star avengers were to unite in the same show, James Jones would have a hard time defending his ideologies.

Can Aaron Rodgers be defended at this point?

It starts within the show itself. What Joy Taylor said about Rodgers’ absence made a lot of sense and it started with a simple question. Could Aaron Rodgers not reschedule his flight? He’s got people that can probably do it for him. Not only that, Taylor had a sly remark about A-Rod’s leadership as well. “The point is, it’s not that hard to reschedule…..[As] Someone who literally had to reschedule a trip to Egypt, it’s not that difficult to do. It’s just not. So he could have just moved it to the two days after the mandatory OTAs.”

Noting that she’s biased against the New York Jets “seriousness,” Taylor added, “I don’t think Aaron Rodgers is particularly a good leader. He doesn’t care about setting standards.” But if you think that’s brutal, you would be wrong. There’s no one more hell bent on criticizing Aaron Rodgers than Nick Wright. And criticize he did on First Things First. Imagine the test sheet is multiple choice and Nick Wright is the teacher who’s going to grade the paper. He didn’t hold himself back at all.

“If the answer is, ‘it was the only time in the schedule the Egyptologist would tell me about Tartania, so I had to go,’ that’s over here [unreasonable]. And so, if we all agree that there are certain excuses that would give you more grace, this would be one that would I think fairly generates the least. ‘MY WACKY YOUTUBE REDDIT LADEN BRAIN HAD TO GO SEE THESE PYRAMIDS FOR MYSELF BECAUSE I THINK A DIFFERENT SOCIETY BUILT THEM.’ If that’s the reason, yeah you need to clear the air.” said Wright in a recent episode of FTF. That was too descriptive of Nick Wright and the crazy part is that it’s hard to say whether he’s “Wright” or wrong.

It’s lights, camera, action for Aaron Rodgers and he hasn’t broken the silence yet. The world is waiting for an answer. Rumors are that Rodgers’ trip to Egypt had something to do with healing him through spiritual wisdom and ancient medicine. As long as they’re not PED’s and they heal Rodgers for a perfect 2024 season, everything should be good. The Jets won the Super Bowl in the 1969 season last time and it is perhaps one of the oldest droughts in the league. Can he end it this time?