The Aaron Rodgers-Adam Schefter texting discussion continues to percolate. After (Green Bay Packers quarterback, for the moment) Rodgers revealed that he responded to ESPN NFL insider Schefter’s request for confirmation that he had told the New York Jets he wanted to play for them with “Lose my number,” Schefter himself tweeted the screenshot of Rodgers’ response to him of “Lose my number. Good try tho.” Schefter then revealed what he sent Rodgers, which was “Hey, everybody says to ask somebody else, so I’m asking you. Have you told the Jets that you’re planning to play for them?”, and which was followed by a phone call to Rodgers (which went to voicemail).
But one thing that wasn’t clear in those discussions was if there was more text history between Rodgers and Schefter in the past. Either answer to that would be interesting. Rodgers has long complained about various NFL media members, including Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, saying they were ‘making sh*t up about him” and calling their reports “fake news,” so if he had texted with Schefter before, that might undermine that a bit. Alternatively, if there had been a long text history from Schefter, that might explain Rodgers’ seemingly over-the-top “lose my number” response to what felt like a reasonable question.
But no text history between Rodgers and Schefter would support Rodgers’ claims Schefter isn’t getting information from him. It would also illustrate that Schefter’s Rodgers reporting (which has often proven accurate) is coming from different sources than Rodgers. And it does appear that there’s no text history there. At least, that’s what Schefter told NBC’s Peter King, who covered this saga in the “10 Things I Think I Think” section of his Football Morning In America column Monday. Here’s what King wrote on that part of the story:
7. I think I was curious about the Schefter story, and so I asked him for his side of it. On Friday, he told me: “I’ve had his number for a while. I never once used it. Trey Wingo reported [last Monday] he was ‘hearing’ that Rodgers to the Jets was done. The day he did it, ESPN was going live from 3 to 5 on free agency. Everyone was saying Aaron Rodgers to the Jets is done. We’re on the air for two hours. I call the Jets, I call the Pack, I call Rodgers’ advisers. No one’s saying anything. So, I’m sitting there on the set with Dianna Russini. ‘Should I text Rodgers?’ She said, ‘Yeah, text him.’ At 3:35, I texted him. I say, basically: ‘Have you informed the Jets that you’d like to play there? I wanted to open it up to you.’ He didn’t respond for maybe 10 minutes. So then I called the number, got sent to voice mail. Then he texts me, ‘Lose my number. Good try tho.’ That’s all. He’s the one who says the media’s getting it wrong. I wanted to go to source and get it right. That’s all. I was just trying to do my job.” I don’t know how you do the job any differently, frankly.
That feels like a reasonable further explanation from Schefter. And it does illustrate that he has not been repeatedly texting Rodgers. And that adds to the strangeness of Rodgers’ “Lose my number” response. And King’s overall takeaway earlier in this column (point #6) that “this thing [Rodgers] has with Schefter is just plain weird” seems about right. It’s quite odd that Rodgers has so much animosity towards Schefter, especially with this limited history of interaction between them.
But Rodgers has plenty of animosity for the media in general (non-Pat McAfee division). And he’s certainly far from the only athlete recently annoyed with media reporting on them. And a “lose my number” text maybe isn’t that odd in the grand scheme of things, when we’re talking about an athlete also known for ayahuasca (which he insists is not a drug) usage, darkness retreats, and debates over what “immunized” means. It’s certainly notable to find out the text that led to that was Schefter’s only text outreach to Rodgers, though.
[Football Morning In America; photo of Schefter texting on Monday Night Countdown set in January from Kevin Sabitus/ESPN Images)
