Aaron Rodgers explains his controversial decision to skip Jets’ mandatory minicamp for trip to Egypt

When the New York Jets went through minicamp last month, they had to do it without Aaron Rodgers, who decided to skip the mandatory practices so that he could take a trip to Egypt. 

The quarterback’s decision came with a lot of scrutiny. Although the Jets said they knew that Rodgers wasn’t going to be there, they still labeled his absence as unexcused. 

So why did Rodgers decide to skip the only mandatory practices on the Jets’ spring schedule? 

The four-time MVP finally answered that question during an interview on the “Pardon My Take” podcast that was released on Monday. Rodgers justified his actions by pointing out that minicamp isn’t really minicamp anymore.  

“The thing I think that people don’t understand was that when I was in the NFC North [playing for the Packers] years ago, there used to be a real thing called minicamp,” Rodgers said. “It was five practices in three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two practices on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Now, it’s not minicamp.”

According to Rodgers, minicamp has turned into an extension of OTAs and since he was at nearly every OTA this offseason, he didn’t see it as a big deal that he decided to skip out on minicamp. 

“They can arbitrarily put a tag on whatever week of OTAs they want and say ‘This is the minicamp week,’ which makes it somehow more mandatory than the other weeks, but it was an OTA schedule,” Rodgers said. “That’s how words can be a little deceiving from time to time. They can make a story about how I missed a minicamp when it was really two OTA days. I came to the first 10.”

Rodgers clearly doesn’t think it was a big deal that he skipped minicamp and everyone in the Jets’ organization will agree with him the team gets off to a hot start this year. However, if the Jets stumble out of the gate to start the season, his decision to skip minicamp will likely come under even more scrutiny. 

The Jets will be reporting to training camp on Tuesday and the quarterback is not expected to skip that.