Robert Saleh made the following announcement on Tuesday to open a press conference in Florham Park at the beginning of the team’s mandatory minicamp:
“We’ve got two unexcused absences. One obviously being Haason (Reddick). I spoke to him over the weekend, appreciate the dialogue. He’s in a really good place mentally, working his tail off like we already know, he’s choosing to sit out this one unexcused. The second one is Aaron (Rodgers), we had spoke before OTAs started, he’s been very good in communication and been here the entire time. It’s unexcused, but he had an event that was very important to him which he communicated.”
Saleh has taken some heat for how he handled this statement because he said Rodgers’ absence was “unexcused.” Two people who criticized Saleh for the wording of his statement are friends of Rodgers who work for ESPN. Another is a Jets fan who works for ESPN.
But if two players are absent from a mandatory camp, and Saleh said Reddick’s absence is “unexcused,” how could they then turn around and say Rodgers’ absence is okay?
How would that have looked?
The New England Patriots honored Tom Brady last night in Foxboro. During the incredible run Brady and head coach Bill Belichick had in New England, winning six Super Bowls together, one of the hallmarks of that run was every player was treated the same, including Brady, who Belichick would call out in front of teammates in meetings at times.
If you are going to build a strong football culture, you can’t have double-standards.
So if Saleh was going to open his press conference saying that Reddick’s absence from a mandatory minicamp was “unexcused” how could they then turn around in the same sound-bite and say another player was “excused?”
How would that have looked, and what kind of message would that send to the locker room?
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