It would have been an epic day for Mike and the Mad Dog to talk sports and go at it as hard as they can.
With the news that Aaron Rodgers was missing the Jets’ mandatory minicamp for an “unexcused” absence to attend an unspecified event that is “important to him,” former cohosts Mike Francesa and Chris Russo had wildly disparate opinions on the topic.
“What he did yesterday just set them back again because it shows that he has zero respect for this organization and this head coach,” Francesa said on his BetRivers podcast.
“Zero. You don’t do this to your head coach. And forget all the extracurricular activity that is part of your life. Put it away for a year! Forget all the interviews every week. Forget what’s going on with vaccines. Forget what’s going on in the political world. Forget all of that and just be a quarterback for one damn year! That’s all.”
On his SiriusXM program, Russo was on the opposite end of the spectrum.
“Rodgers misses a mandatory minicamp — I mean, what’s the big deal?” Russo asked.
“Would you rather have him show up at the mandatory camp this week, or would you rather have him go 28 of 38, 285, three touchdowns in a win against San Francisco on that Monday night in September? Which one would you rather have?”
Russo continued, “Listen, anyone who gets that worked up about the mandatory part of training camp, on June 10th, when the season starts September 8th, and it’s a month-and-a-half from the real training camp to begin with.
“If anybody gets all caught up with that, especially from a guy who’s a Hall of Famer, who’s 40 years old, who knows every in and out of the position you can think of, I mean that’s ridiculous. The New York Post and all the New York papers making a big deal today out of him missing training camp, who cares? Jeez.”
