Aaron Rodgers Comments on Roger Goodell, NFL's Power Structure

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers could be without two of his best defensive teammates for part of the 2016 season, as outside linebackers Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews are under investigation by the NFL after their names appeared in Al-Jazeera America's report about performance-enhancing-drug users. 

If the defensive duo is sidelined by Commissioner Roger Goodell more than eight months after the initial report, Rodgers won't be pointing the finger at the NFL or its leading man for taking advantage of their power.

Instead, he laid his sights on the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement, signed in 2011, as he spoke with the Jim Rome Show on Wednesday, via ESPN.com's Jason Wilde:

"

If that is the case, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Because we had the opportunity in the CBA to make some legitimate changes to that. I think there was probably too much pressure to come to a deal when we had all the power on our side.

That was something we should have had negotiated into the CBA because there shouldn't be somebody who is the judge, jury and executioner, as they say.

"

This is the same report that initially landed former Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning into trouble toward the end of his Hall of Fame-worthy career, but he has since been cleared. On top of that, the man who accused Peppers and Matthews, Charlie Sly, recanted his allegations, per Wilde. 

Still, the league has continued looking into this matter and is now threatening Matthews and Peppers, along with Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and free-agent linebacker James Neal, with suspensions if they don't "submit to interviews" by Aug. 25, per SI.com's Michael McCann. 

In Rodgers' eyes, this provides bad optics for the league:

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I think it's pretty typical of how things have been going with them lately. It sets a bad precedent, I think, that any wild accusation -- accredited [or not], legitimate or illegitimate -- they're going to try and bully these guys into testifying... I think that it just looks bad for the league, especially after Peyton got cleared and there's been some holes shot [in] it. But I'm confident that those guys have nothing to hide and they'll work something out.

"

Legislative issues with players have been nothing new for Goodell and the NFL lately. They are fresh off putting the Deflategate case to bed in July after Tom Brady discontinued his appeal of a four-game suspension, ending an 18-month saga that went to a federal appeals court, one step beneath the Supreme Court. 

With the current CBA in effect through the 2020 season, these kinds of stories could be commonplace for at least the next four years. But after the deal expires, negotiations for a new deal could get ugly after the past few summers.