Two months after calling Adam Schefter a “mouthpiece” for NFL teams, Craig Carton may have similarly served as a propagandist for the Green Bay Packers.
As the Packers and New York Jets continue to squabble over trade compensation for Aaron Rodgers, Carton went on his FS1 show this week and suggested the San Francisco 49ers are preparing to enter the fold for Green Bay’s longtime quarterback. But according to his WFAN radio co-host Evan Roberts, Carton is just being used by the Packers.
“You’re just being used,” Roberts said. “The Green Bay Packers needed to find a lemon. They needed to find somebody that could put the message out there to scare Joe Douglas, to try to get it over the finish line. You happen to be that lemon…This is all an attempt — and I give the Packers credit, it’s creative — all an attempt to scare the Jets…Craig, you’re doing nothing wrong, you’re just being used.”
As long as Rodgers maintains that he only wants to play for the Jets this season, Green Bay’s leverage is waning. Green Bay can’t pretend another team is on the phone with a better offer if Rodgers won’t consider playing anywhere other than New York. But if there was another team with interest, the 49ers seem like an obvious fit, a Super Bowl-ready team with unproven quarterbacks. So did Green Bay float that San Francisco is interested, or did Carton just connect the dots and “report” it for attention?
“Why would anyone want to use me?” Carton asked. “I didn’t put it out there for attention. You saw the correspondence I got. I’m not a clickbait guy. People that don’t know me nationally can say whatever they want, I don’t care.”
“Do you guys actually think I went on the radio yesterday and today or on TV this morning and decided, ‘I want attention and clicks so I’m gonna make something up,’” Carton continued. “Do you guys honestly think I would ever do that?”
He has to know the answer to that question is a resounding “yes,” especially as he attempts to build an audience for the FS1 show he launched seven months ago. Roberts, however, didn’t accuse his radio partner of making the rumors up, he accuses Carton of being a tool for Green Bay to spread fake information.
“Just because the Green Bay Packers are desperate and they’re floating you fake information, doesn’t mean the information’s gonna turn out to be true,” Roberts said. “This is their attempt to scare the Jets.”
Carton’s former WFAN radio partner, Boomer Esiason dubbed the Aaron Rodgers trade to the Jets “fait accompli” over a month ago and he has not wavered.
[WFAN]
