With no interest in getting into the world’s most mind-numbing and circular argument, I elect to have zero thought on the content of Aaron Rodgers’s televised airing of political and media gripes (you may even say that I plead the conversational fifth). That said, given all that has happened to the quarterback position globally over the past few days, it is worthwhile discussing the brazenness with which Rodgers continues to operate as he barrels toward his NFL curtain call and what—if any—consequences will exist because of it.Consider these events seemingly unrelated to Rodgers before I’ll make the case that they very much are: • Tony Romo’s DWI stop leading to an indefinite pause with CBS (this after significantly less attention was paid to a DUI from fellow broadcaster Al Michaels about 13 years prior), reflecting the near-spotless perfection top analysts now have to embody both inside the booth and outside of its confines. • Baker Mayfield talking about utilizing his editorial control over the Netflix series Quarterback to ensure he is portrayed as “all ball.” Mayfield went from a moderately popular insurance company spokesman to league vagabond to fringe franchise quarterback who is upset over the lack of financial commitment from his organization. It would seem that, throughout his NFL life, there has been an almost painful level of effort on his part to be recognized as one of the untouchable “franchise quarterback” types who exit the NFL to a glut of standard opportunities ranging from television commentary to selling canned baked beans. Both are cautionary tales of quarterbacks who have attempted to attack their careers the “right” way (notice the air quotes). Romo was the face of the slick and untouchable until the rules of the game changed. More was demanded of the analyst role at a time when Romo was faltering and, with that, the morality of his traffic stop has seemingly inflated to create a chance for the former Cowboys quarterback to be usurped by a more popular analyst. Mayfield was the face of the man just outside of the golden gates. No matter how carefully curated the image, a team can be done with you, or fail to see you in the way you see yourself. While Mayfield is still wonderfully charismatic, moving on from the Buccaneers to NFL free agency—where mostly bad teams need quarterbacks, the Seahawks being an example to the contrary—places him toward the back of a deep line of players scrambling for post-career airtime.Rodgers, meanwhile, has opted to cease playing the game altogether—or, more accurately, playing it as if the terms are exclusively his own. I suppose we’ll call it admirable in the sense that, with each version of himself that has emerged onto the public consciousness, Rodgers has been that person with gusto. His current disposition as self-appointed societal and media ombudsman removes him from the potential gilded fairytale land from which Romo is currently falling, and where someone like Mayfield would ultimately like to go. That may not be a bad thing for Rodgers personally. In fact, it may be a part of his plan altogether.As always, Rodgers contains multitudes and contradictions. He cares enough about his persona that we all know he mended fences with his family, though not nearly enough to play the typical game of milquetoast opinion olympics, which would allow him to glide into any post-career public-facing opportunity he so chose (think Jaxson Dart’s recent effort after appearing alongside the President and following that up with a press conference, allowing him to numb his support of the President publicly and position himself closer to the safety of middle ground). The one aspect of Rodgers’s recent string of media appearances that I will disagree with is the notion that he will simply vanish. He relishes far too much in the art of the duel, where, in his own mind, he has been forever undefeated.And when he continues publicly, Rodgers has laid the groundwork to do it uncensored, free of consequences and—especially if The Pat McAfee Show is any indication—void of any grounded-in-reality counterargument to his worldview that would make it a true two-sided conversation. That would not have been appealing to a company with advertisers to satisfy 25, 20 or even 15 years ago. But now, as older media gatekeeping institutions face outsized challenges to survive, Rodgers may be the face of a new brand of cross-platform, cross-topic analyst who is entirely protected from having an opinion, or committing some public sin that gets him Romo’d (Rodgers is, for example, also open about his use of psychedelics). Any person doing business with Rodgers would have to do so knowing fully that he cannot be predicted, instructed or shoved into the appropriate box.Again, this is neither praise nor dismissal. It is a recognition that the current Right Way has turned its back on players who may have never taken the opportunity to say what was truly on their minds, or are punished the minute they step too far out of line (Mayfield, while absolutely expressive and on the more revealing side of quarterbacks, still very much has the wherewithal to sanitize his message to the point where it falls in line). Rodgers will be the most fascinating example of what opportunities are allotted to a person who has not cared to operate that way in more than a decade—and what that will say about the world that either embraces him warmly or casts him aside.More NFL from Sports IllustratedAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow