- Aaron Rodgers was traded from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets, as was his "intention."
- Brian Gutekunst, the Packers GM, had previously said that Rodgers missed multiple phone calls.
If you want to reach Aaron Rodgers, you have to do it by FaceTime.
That's according to Rodgers himself, who said that poor cell reception caused him to miss calls from the Green Bay Packers at his introductory press conference with the New York Jets on Wednesday.
In March, Brian Gutekunst, the Packers GM, told reporters from an NFL league meeting that he had tried to contact Rodgers "many times." At that point, Rodgers had already said on "The Pat McAfee Show" that it was his "intention" to play for the Jets, and that he wanted to leave because he believed the Packers were ready to move on from him.
"Our inability to reach him or for him to respond in any way," Gutekunst told The Athletic's Matt Schneider. "I think at that point we just kind of had to — I had to do my job and reach out and understanding that a trade could be possible."
After months of negotiations between the Jets and the Packers, the teams struck a deal on Monday to send the 40-year-old, four-time MVP to the Jets in exchange for a bounty of draft picks.
Rodgers was asked on Wednesday about Gutekunst's comments and said that he never received FaceTime calls from the Packers.
"I will say, people that know me — I'm fortunate to live in a beautiful house. The only downside is I have very limited cell service," Rodgers said. "So if you wanna get ahold of me, I have to see your face. You gotta FaceTime me."
FaceTime connects calls using Wi-Fi and cellular service but will attempt to use Wi-Fi first.
"So, the only response to the communication thing is, there's records in your phone about who called you, when, FaceTime. And there wasn't any specific FaceTimes from any of those numbers that I was looking at."
—Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) April 26, 2023
Despite his somewhat icy relationship with Gutekunst, Rodgers wrote a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday that thanked multiple members of the Packers organization.