Aaron Rodgers officially began his holdout with the Green Bay Packers, and head coach Matt LaFleur is sure to face a daily barrage of questions about the absence of the star quarterback. We now have a pretty good idea of how he plans to handle them.
LaFleur was asked on Tuesday if Rodgers’ absence was excused or if he will be fined. The coach categorized the situation as “team business” and said very little about it.
LaFleur said he is still optimistic the issues between Rodgers and the Packers will be resolved. He added that he has no concerns about Rodgers being unready for the start of the regular season if he misses offseason time.
The Packers have the option of fining Rodgers more than $90,000 for every day he misses of mandatory minicamp, or they can categorize the absences as excused. They will be required to fine him $50,000 for each day of training camp that he misses.
There is some thinking that the Packers could be daring Rodgers to not show up at all. That would allow them to collect fines, recoup bonus money, see what they have in Jordan Love and then potentially still trade Rodgers at some point.
Rodgers has given no indication that he is open to playing in Green Bay this season.
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