The Old and the Restless

 And now today's episode in that ongoing daytime drama, The Pack Is Slack, which also is  known in some quarters as The Crybabyin' of Aaron. Take your pick, there are two distinct camps here.

One says the Green Bay Packers have bought, by noodle-brained increments, the now-open disgruntlement of their Hall of Fame quarterback.

The other says Aaron Rodgers is a big fat whiner and he should shut up and play, because the Packers are paying him lots of stackable coin to do so.

Taken as a whole it's The Old and the Restless, and in the latest installment, Rodgers did an interview with Kenny Mayne in which he aired all his gripes with the Packers. Then he decided not to show up for an OTA which he wasn't required to attend anyway.

Or at least that's the way "voluntary" is defined in the Blob's dictionary.

In spite of that, this became an Issue, and compelled Packers coach Matt LaFleur and some of Rodgers' teammates to face a flurry of hungry media questions about it. They all said what you'd expect them to say, which is that they all consider Rodgers a vital part of the team because he's one of the greatest ever to play his position, and they're all wishing him well and hope he comes back to them soon.

The mean little cynic who lives inside the Blob interprets this Media Availability Speak in a slightly different way.

LaFleur: Dammit, Packer Front Office, quit jackin' the guy around. You're messin' with my season prep.

Selected Teammates Of Rodgers: Dammit, Packer Front Office, quit jackin' the guy around. You're messin' with our (potential) playoff bonuses.

Now, I'm sure there are other Selected Teammates who are just as mightily torqued at Rodgers, too. But I have a feeling most of them are in the other camp, and probably the reason I feel that way is because I'm in the other camp, too.

I think the Packers have brought all this turmoil on themselves. And the reason I think that  is they've spent the last decade or so treating their Hall of Fame quarterback -- the franchise, not to put too fine a point on it -- like just another guy.

It's not just that they drafted his potential replacement a couple of years ago without giving him the courtesy of a heads-up. It's that they did the same thing when they got rid of his quarterback coach and some of his favorite receivers. And that they keep drafting defensive players instead of receivers and other assorted offensive upgrades.

This leads one to the obvious conclusion that they've taken Rodgers for granted all these years. Paid him well, but taken him for granted.

After awhile that might tend to make a guy resentful. Not to say bitter.

I don't blame Rodgers at all for being both, if he in fact is. He's looking around at the way other franchises treat their franchise quarterbacks -- check out the dough the Chiefs have spent to keep Patrick Mahomes surrounded by weapons and a stout O-line, for instance -- and then he's looking at what the Packers have been doing all these years, and it's got to sting.

He's still under contract to Green Bay, so eventually he'll play, I'm guessing. But when the contract runs out,  it would serve the Packers right if he'd wind up taking snaps for division rival Minnesota, the way Brett Favre once did. Or even worse, the Bears, once they've ruined Justin Fields the way they always ruin young quarterbacks.

Rodgers of the Bears.

Now that would sting.