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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
Commenting for the first time on his highly scrutinized absence from last month’s mandatory minicamp, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers downplayed the entire matter, insisting minicamps nowadays are just glorified OTA practices.
“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,” Rodgers said on the latest episode of Barstool’s “Pardon My Take” podcast, which was published Monday morning. “But it was an OTA schedule. That’s how words can be a little deceiving from time to time. They can make a story out of the fact that I missed minicamp, but it was really two OTA days, but [I] came to the first 10.”
Rodgers noted how the structure of minicamps has changed over the years, recalling how they used to be three-day events that included five practices. In those days, he said, a minicamp was “a real thing.”
Teams have scaled back, though minicamp still is considered a “mandatory” event, according to the collective bargaining agreement. Rodgers sparked a controversy June 11 when he didn’t report for the start of a two-day minicamp. Coach Robert Saleh called it an “unexcused” absence and said Rodgers was subject to a fine, as stipulated by the collective bargaining agreement. At the same time, Saleh said he supported Rodgers’ decision, adding the four-time MVP had communicated his plans well in advance.
As it turned out, Rodgers, 40, used the time to vacation in Egypt, a bucket-list destination. For years, he had been eyeing the trip. He wasn’t asked on the podcast why he scheduled the trip during minicamp. Rodgers, asked if he took issue with his absence being termed “unexcused,” sidestepped the question.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll get fined for that,” he said in the interview, which was taped last week.
Rodgers, who tore his left Achilles on the fourth snap of the 2023 season, said his surgically repaired tendon is healed and ready for training camp.
“I’m running fast,” he said. Jets veterans report Tuesday. The first practice is Wednesday at their facility in Florham Park, New Jersey.