NFL analyst Geoff Schwartz caused a buzz recently on social media with his comments about New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, calling him out for missing the team’s mandatory minicamp.
Schwartz got some blowback from Jets fans for his remarks. He says he was just stating the facts, but thinks his observation got blown out of proportion on social media.
In an appearance on the Short and to the Point podcast, Schwartz defended his recent X post on Rodgers. Schwartz, who played six NFL seasons before retiring after the 2015 campaign, recently quote-tweeted an X post from Awful Announcing showing a report that Rodgers was on “vacation” while the rest of the Jets were in the mandatory camp.
“Every starting QB is at their mandatory mini camp while the Jets starting QB is on vacation for his team’s mini camp,” Schwartz posted. “Those are the facts. Jets fans will make every excuse for it but the rest of his peers managed to not double book this week. Oh well.”
Schwartz, now an NFL and college football analyst for SiriusXM and Fox Sports Radio, told Short and to the Point host Jess Kleinschmidt that he did not mean to sound judgmental in the post.
“All I did was put out the facts, right?” Schwartz said. “31 other quarterbacks were there. The 32nd was not. Everyone else managed to show up, he managed to double-book minicamp weekend. I went back and looked by the way, it’s the same week every year … he didn’t know what week it was. He’s a 20-year veteran, he can figure out what week minicamp is. I made no judgment on it too, by the way, that’s all I said. One tweet is all I tweeted.”
Perhaps Schwartz did not intend to come across as critical or judgmental in his post. But in his role as an analyst, making a factual statement that could be seen as shining a negative light on a player is going to come across that way.
“(People say), “You made such a big deal out of it,'” Schwartz said. “I didn’t make any deal out of it. Look, do I think it matters to winning and losing? Probably not. Probably means nothing. But the fact is, it’s sort of another moment, another instance where football’s not his No. 1 priority. And that’s OK. There are plenty of players who are successful in the NFL, football’s not their entire life … but they also show up to all the things they’re supposed to be at.”
Schwartz paraphrased Rodgers’ recent remarks about getting rid of all the “BS” and focusing on football. Schwartz said missing minicamp to take a vacation is a bad example for everyone else.
“People took my tweet as like, ‘It’s a big deal,'” Schwartz said. “People get way too serious on social media. It’s not a big deal … the fact is, it’s just another example of him saying one thing and doing something else. And when you call him out on that, all his fans come at you.”
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About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.