04-07-2025
Aaron Rodgers was 'isolated and dismissive' during tense labor talks, ex-union chief writes in scathing memoir
Aaron Rodgers was 'isolated and dismissive' in union meetings and made a dramatic departure from one after expelling a loud groan, according to former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.
As reported by Awful Announcing, Smith's upcoming book Turf Wars centers on his time as head of the NFLPA from 2009 until 2023, when Rodgers was winning four MVP awards and a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers publicly disagreed with the 2020 collective bargaining agreement that allowed for the expanded 17-game season. He also showed his displeasure during NFLPA meetings with his behavior, according to Smith.
'The god of Cheesehead Nation was isolated and dismissive,' Smith wrote.
'He sat in the back row of the meeting room, issuing loud sighs before standing for a dramatic exit,' Smith continued. 'An incredible quarterback, to be sure, but an even more impressive antagonist.'
Smith, a strong proponent of the adopted 17-game regular season, clearly found Rodgers difficult to work with.
'In August 2021, my phone chirped with a text from Aaron Rodgers,' Smith wrote. 'Can you call me?' it read. Could I not run into traffic instead?'
Rodgers is now embarking on his first and likely only season with the Pittsburgh Steelers after a disastrous two-year stint with the New York Jets.
He wasn't the only quarterback criticized in Smith's book.
Smith also quoted then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins on the topic of players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racist police brutality.
'I just think we all need to understand,' Cousins said, according to Smith, 'that kneeling may be hurting the game and having an effect on revenue.'
Smith remembers Cousins as the only white player in the room later getting an earful from union official Don Davis, who is African American.
'Kirk,' Davis began, according to Smith, 'do you know what the Black players hear when you say that? That the n*****s need to shut up.''
Smith saved some of his greatest jabs for NFL owners (a 'cabal of greedy billionaires') and commissioner Roger Goodell, whom he says 'was in the employ of madmen.'
'If Jerry Jones saw a dollar bill on the ground,' Smith wrote of the Dallas Cowboys owner, 'I truly believe he'd stop and pick it up.'
He writes of league general counsel Jeff Pash, 'definitely the most unscrupulous. In a corporation filled with ruthless people, Pash has everyone else beat.'
A former litigator, Smith was brought into the union in 2009 following the sudden death of executive director and Oakland Raiders legend Gene Upshaw.
Smith has faced criticism over a stagnant salary cap over the earlier part of his tenure, but players have enjoyed a far greater share of league profits in recent years.
He also takes credit in his book for limiting practices and installing a salary floor to thwart cheapskate owners.
