Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Rodgers is expected to avoid surgery on toe
Green Bay — Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is seeking other medical opinions but it appears that he will not have surgery on his fractured left toe.
NFL Network reported Monday morning that Rodgers wasn’t planning on surgery “at this time” and was hopeful the bye week would allow the toe to heal enough that he would be in less discomfort when the Packers return to face the Chicago Bears on Dec. 12.
Coach Matt LaFleur said late Monday afternoon he didn’t know if Rodgers is holding off on having surgery as reported but that his understanding was the quarterback was still gathering information on what to do.
Rodgers said last week there was a procedure that would allow him to return after the bye week, but he gave no indication after the victory over the Rams on Sunday if that was still an option.
He said he would undergo tests Monday and it’s possible he or the Packers’ medical team wants multiple doctors to confirm that he is making the right decision not to have the procedure.
Asked whether Rodgers had decided against surgery, LaFleur said, “I don’t know where that’s at. I know he’s gathering other opinions. So, we’ll see where that goes.”
Rodgers has been dealing with the broken toe since his return from the COVID-19 list two weeks ago.
He has played in three games since breaking the small toe on his left foot while working out at home during his quarantine and displayed a prolonged limp for the first time against the Rams. The Packers will return to practice Monday, but it’s likely Rodgers wouldn’t take part in practice until midweek at the earliest.
LaFleur said he didn’t know if there would be considerable healing during the bye that might make it possible for Rodgers to practice or play with less pain.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know the time frame for that to heal,” he said. “I
know he’s battling through. I think you could see it, at the end of the game, as the game wears on, he starts to have a more noticeable limp.
“But he’s as tough as they come. He’s played through so many things throughout the course of his career. And I think definitely he’s a guy that wants to be out there at practice, too. He wants to be out there practicing with his teammates, and not only for himself, but for those other guys and making sure that that everybody is is on top of their game.”
In describing what his bye week will be like, Rodgers said Sunday, “I’ll get treatment every single day.” He said not having to go through practice prior to the Rams game left his toe feeling better than the previous week and so it’s possible he will be limited to walkthroughs again next week.
“The most important thing is healing and taking care of my toe,” Rodgers said.
Eager to say hi to the bye
Before sending his players off on their weeklong vacation, defensive coordinator Joe Barry left them with what could amount to a horror story of the not-sogood-old days.
It used to be, Barry told them, players had to practice throughout the week of a bye. It was only that weekend they would be given off.
“They were like, ‘What? You practiced on the bye week?” Barry said, mocking their incredulity.
Even if a fatigued Packers team wasn’t entering this Week 13 bye, there would be no practice this week. LaFleur knows his team needs rest after playing every week through the season’s first three months.
That will be the priority for the next seven days.
LaFleur said his players were given off until Monday, six days to recharge for the season’s final five games. His coaching staff will be inside Lambeau Field on Tuesday “doing a lot of self-scout,” but then they will have off until Monday as well.
“You always want the bye to work to your advantage,” LaFleur said. “Hopefully it allows some of our guys to get some much-needed rest to recharge the battery and potentially get some of these guys that have been on IR or that have sustained injuries to get them back to a better position to be close to 100 percent. I don’t think anybody is 100 percent at this time in the season, but certainly you want your guys to be as fresh as possible.”
Stock sale hits 138,000 shares sold
The Packers sold 138,000 shares in the first week of the sixth stock sale in team history.
The sale began Nov. 16 with 33,000 shares sold in the first three hours and 110,000 in the first day and a half. After one week, 46% of the 300,000 available shares were sold. The sale is scheduled to continue to Feb. 25, 2022, or until all shares are sold.
During the previous sale, in 2011, the team offered 250,000 shares at $250 each and added another 30,000 after about three weeks. It also extended the sales period. In the end, the Packers sold 269,000 shares that year and raised $67.4 million.
Shares this time sell at $300, plus a $35 handling fee, which means $46 million was taken in since the start of the sale.
If all shares are sold, the team will raise $90 million, exclusive of the handling fees, which team President and CEO Mark Murphy said will go toward $250 million in Lambeau Field projects, including concourse renovation and new digital video scoreboards.
Before the sale, the Packers had 361,300 shareholders who collectively owned 5,009,400 shares.
Shares do not pay a dividend and cannot be sold, although they can be transferred to family members. As a result, the majority of Packers shareholders own one share. Shareholders vote on the team’s board of directors and other matters that come before them at the annual share
holders meeting in July.
The sale is approved in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., the American territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in Canada.
Individuals can view offering documents and purchase shares at packersstock.com. Individuals without internet access can request mail-in documents toll-free at (833) 696-7225. Only U.S. transactions can be completed by mail, and paid for with a personal check or cashier’s check.
This is the sixth stock sale in the team’s 102-year history. The first three sales, in 1923, 1935 and 1950, bailed the team out of dire finance straits. The 1997 sale was for the renovation of Lambeau Field. The 2011 and 2021 sales are for continued construction projects at the stadium.
According to NFL rules, the Packers can use the money only for projects which directly affect the fans. The money cannot be used for operations or football facilities.
Packers hope Bakhtiari can return in December
Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari recently underwent arthroscopic surgery on the knee that was reconstructed in January, the NFL Network reported last week.
The Packers hope the clean-up operation will enable Bakhtiari’s knee to keep improving and allow him to play after the team’s bye week in December.
Bakhtiari had been missing from recent practices despite having been activated from the injured list.
Green Bay is shorthanded at left tackle after Elgton Jenkins suffered a season-ending torn ACL on Nov. 21. He was placed on injured reserve last week Tuesday. Yosh Nijman started at left tackle against the Rams — his fourth start of the season.
Redmond released
The Packers last week released safety Will Redmond. He had been with Green Bay since 2018, but did not appear in any games during the 2021 season.