“Making A Murderer” – A 2020 Packers Preview?

For Immediate Release

THE NEXT SEASON OF NETFLIX’S HIGHLY ACCLAIMED “MAKING A MURDERER” SERIES WILL FOCUS ON THE EMERGING POSSIBILITY OF MULTIPLE PREMEDITATED MURDERS OCCURRING IN GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN BEFORE THE END OF 2020

Hollywood, CA — September 2, 2020 — Making A Murderer, the highly acclaimed Netflix series that focused on the alleged malpractice involved in the conviction of Steven Avery, returns this fall with a series of programs investigating the steps that appear to be leading to the eventual transformation of Aaron Rodgers into a potential mass murderer.

According to a synopsis from the writers, “[T]he new installments will take fans of the acclaimed documentary series back into Wisconsin to tell them the unfolding story of Aaron Rodgers, and how Mr. Rodgers is being influenced by team decisions into possibly taking the ultimate step to both resolve all outstanding differences and eliminate all opposition to his dominance over the quarterback position in Green Bay.”

This new series will focus on a series of key dates which are influencing the character changes inside the Packers locker room, dating back to Rodgers’ origins in Green Bay, and will tie together events that will purport to show how this transformation is taking place in real time. “We are proud to be ahead of the game,” say the writers & directors, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. “The original series focused on the aftermath of a murder in Wisconsin. This time, we are back in Wisconsin, operating ahead of the eventual killings, and will be able to show the viewer all of the steps that are leading to this inevitable conclusion. Although we truly hope it doesn’t end this way, we anticipate being able to broadcast the first murder by a football player of a NFL executive IN REAL TIME.”

In order to prepare viewers for what they will witness, and in the interests of full disclosure, Netflix provides the following episode abstracts, to allow the series’ fans the ability to draw out their own conclusions in advance of the final slaughter.

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Season Three (2020)

Episode 301 – “April 23, 2005” – Draft day

A young man is told his professional future will begin on this day. He has been promised that he will be the first overall draft pick, which will reward him with millions of dollars, and that he will be chosen by the team he grew up idolizing as a child. His mood could generously be described as “upbeat” to start the day.

However, according to “analytics”, he was overlooked by that team, and instead has to sit in ignominy while team after team chose different players, each time the bright lights of the TV camera returning to his increasingly sad, vengeful facade.

He ends the day with a prophetic, ominous statement:

Reporter: How disappointed are you that you will not be a 49er?

Rodgers: Not as disappointed as the 49ers will be.

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Episode 302 – “March 2008” – Brett Favre (finally) retires from the Packers

For years, this had been guaranteed to him, as the Heir Apparent. He had dutifully waited his turn, learning at the foot of the master. He had absorbed all the learning that was available. In his mind, he was ready for the kingdom he had been promised.

What he had not counted on was the reticence of The Gunslinger.

Or the fact that the fans were so loyal to The Gunslinger that they would immediately turn against the Heir Apparent. In 2007, prior to the season, he was booed in preseason workouts, by fans holding signs expressing their choice for Once & Future King.

After a Favre interception cost the Packers the NFC Championship, the reins – but not the adoration – were turned over to Rodgers. The Gunslinger retired in tears,

then resurfaced in New York, much to the consternation of the faithful, who believe Rodgers had driven their King out of town. The emotions of the departed King proved their notion. The Packers would go 6-10, and fans openly lamented whether management had made the right choice, and demanded the King return. But management would not yield. The Heir Apparent had become Cromwell, yet the people were not respecting the transition, and he was seething.

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Episode 303 – “February 6, 2011” – Super Bowl XLV

It was all forgotten.

The years of professional turmoil. The fickleness of the fanbase. The questions about his manhood. All those were forgotten in the afterglow of winning the title that would cement his legacy as a true Packer “Legend”. He had turned a 10-6 Wildcard team into Super Bowl champions.

In only his third full year, he had equaled the task of the King he’d replaced. He could now relax, knowing that there would be no more comparisons, no more sniping from the fringes. He had won the title named after the team’s legendary coach, and in doing so finally silenced the multitudes. And given the construction of the team, there would surely be more trophies to follow.

The top of the professional mountain. Who knew it would be the first, last & only time it would be achieved?

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Episode 304 – “November 3, 2013” – Rodgers breaks his collarbone

The fall had been as swift as the ascent. From 2011, where a 15-1 record had been squandered against their playoff nemesis, the NY Giants,

To 2012, where after an 11-5 record they lost on the road to a 49ers team – the team that had passed on him seven years earlier – destined for a bright future with QB Alex Smith Colin Kaepernick.

The 2013 season seemed to be a harbinger of things to come. They had gone from 15-1 in 2011 to 11-5 in 2012, and the inability of the coaching staff to adapt to league-wide changes portended a further decline in record. Still, Aaron Rodgers’ usual grit & tenacity had powered the Packers to a 5-2 record before that fateful Monday Night.

But with an offensive line consisting of guys not even Pete Carroll would sign, the salary cap, and the Bears, caught up to Aaron Rodgers as a hit by Shea McClellin breaks Rodgers’ collarbone. In his absence, and guided by Scott Tolzien and Matt Flynn, the team would go 1-5-1. But since the rest of the division was not up to the task, the Packers entered Week 17 with a chance to win the division, albeit on the road against those same Bears, and with a QB freshly returned but not totally healed from that same broken collarbone.

But destiny, it seemed, had other plans.

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Episode 305 – “October 15, 2017” – Rodgers breaks his collarbone, again

“Suck it!”

Those were the words that rang through Aaron Rodgers ears as he left US Bank Field. Anthony Barr had just finished driving Rodgers’ right shoulder into the Vikings home turf, leaving him with what he figured was another broken collarbone. And Anthony Barr seemed to be relishing in the pain he had caused, refusing to acquiesce to the legend whose season had likely just ended at his hands.

This time, Aaron Rodgers knew it was serious. It was his throwing arm, which meant – unlike the last one – there could be no rushed rehab. Time would the only ally in helping aid recovery.

The coach refused to believe his prized talent’s season – and the team’s as a whole – could be over. Another promising start to the season, one coming on the heels of another failed NFC Championship game, had given fans hope that the Packers had turned their fortunes around & could finally get back to The Big Game, a destination that had eluded them so many times since 2011. He tried to mitigate the loss using his limited non-football vocabulary, but in doing so instead set in motion the final plan that would result in his own departure.

The loss of Aaron Rodgers definitely hurts. As a football team, we have to move forward.

The lack of empathy was noted by an injured man in a hospital bed.

Once the surgery was completed, he would begin his planning. He had had enough. It was time for the pain to stop.

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Episode 306 – “December 2, 2018” – The Coup – Mike McCarthy is fired

Once again, Aaron Rodgers had sat quietly on the sidelines. A decade earlier, he was being held down by the man he replaced at his position. This time, he was looking to replace the man who was coaching his position. Mike McCarthy, the dictionary definition of “hesitation”, was again using his 2011 playbook to play a 2018 opponent. The Arizona Cardinals were no threat to win their division – hell, they hadn’t had much since their miracle Super Bowl run of 2009 – which may have lulled McCarthy into a false sense of security.

The game plan that day was the same as the game plan from 2012, the last time they had beaten the Cardinals. Never mind the two previous encounters – both on the road; both Packers losses – this time would be different, if only the players would commit more to the strategy that had won them their Super Bowl seven years earlier.

But as the game unfolded, it seemed that the Cardinals did indeed have the answers, confounding the architect of a playbook that had been copied by teams across the league. With no answer to a seemingly possible riddle to solve, the head coach indicated his surrender to the eventuality of the situation – if not to the fans, at least to the players. With massage on his mind, Mike McCarthy settled into the stupor of knowing his postgame meal would have to be “to go”, in order to avoid the jibes & recriminations of the fans congregating at The Pancake Place.

Little did he know that his foil was setting in motion a plan that would, by game’s end, result in his unceremonious professional demise, and leave no doubt as to who was running the franchise.

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Episode 307 – “January 20, 2020” – The NFC Championship game vs. San Francisco

The day of reckoning. Nearly 15 years earlier, Aaron Rodgers had make a prophetic statement about the 49ers and their eventual disappointment at his hands. Today was his chance to finally make that statement truth. He could return to the Super Bowl with a victory, an effort that had escaped him twice before in the years since his greatest success.

But on this day, all flaws would be exposed. While Aaron Rodgers had a moderately successful day – 31 of 39 for 326 yards; 2 TDs, 2 INTs – he did not play defence. Indeed, it appeared as if no one did, what with the 49ers running out to a 27-0 halftime lead from which they would not retreat. Again, for the third time in his career, Aaron Rodgers had come up one game short of returning to the Super Bowl.

“It’s a little raw right now, for sure,” Rodgers said. “It definitely hurts a little more than early in the career.”

He knew what the team needed, and hoped they knew that he knew what they needed. It had been over a year since he engineered the removal of the stoic who refused to change with the times. He felt he had Matt Lafleur’s ear, which gave him some comfort going into the long offseason. But after losing three of these games in seven years, the ritual press conferences had become irritating.

“We’re going to be on the right side of one of these real soon.”

He knew changes were coming, and he hoped they would be for his better.

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Episode 308 – “April 23, 2020” – Packers draft QB Jordan Love

This was going to be the year it finally went right. Months had passed since the embarrassment of the NFC Championship game, and Aaron Rodgers knew what the team needed to do. They needed to draft him some receiving help, and maybe someone who could block. The run defence also needed major work, but that wasn’t his department. Still, he felt encouraged when Matt Lafleur had once more solicited his input prior to the April selection season.

Thus it was with great anticipation that he watched Roger Goodell on his TV screen that fateful April evening. He normally tuned in to the draft around the 24th overall pick, because the pain nourishes him. And it was a good thing he did, for a surprise awaited him. The Packers had traded up, switching places with the Dolphins. He called out to his girlfriend, and she joined him in his media room.

“With the 26th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft…”

Aaron leaned forward in his chair. Danica Patrick sat pensively beside him, stroking his back in nervous encouragement.

“…the Green Bay Packers select Jordan Love, Quarterback, from Utah State.”

BETRAYED! His mind immediately flashed back to that April evening long ago. But now he was on the other side of it. He wasn’t the kid waiting interminably for his name to be called, a smile on his face more of relief than satisfaction at a dream materializing.

He was the veteran, who heard only treachery in the selection that was made with the team’s supposed future in mind.

At that exact moment, somewhere in rural Mississippi, a grizzled old Gunslinger sat on his deck. The TV was on in the background, and over the sounds of the cicadas he heard Roger Goodell’s voice announce the Packers – his Packers – first round pick. As the warmth spread through his body, a wry smile emerged.

A knowing smile.

A mocking smile.

His phone rang. The call display said, “Peter King”.

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Episode 309 – “August 2020” – Training Camp

The offseason had been a nightmare. Everywhere he went, he had to face the same questions:

• How did he feel about the team drafting his possible replacement?
• How did he feel about the team not drafting him any receiving help?
• Why had the team drafted another running back, when they were already deep at the position?
• Why had he broken up with Danica, and where had she disappeared to after the breakup?

At least those last questions have plausible answers. “We’d grown apart.” “Our relationship had run its course.” “We will always love & respect each other for the time we shared.” “I traded her in for a younger model.”

Okay – maybe he wouldn’t say that last one out loud…but he was always thinking it.

In terms of his team, it was the uncertainty that unnerved him. There were the various introductions that had to be made. The new Offensive Line,

the returning Wide Receivers,

and the backups.

Of course, it sure helped Rodgers’ dispensation to know that The Kid was having the same difficulties adjusting to camp as he did. He remembered being betrayed by Darrell Bevell to the press at his first camp:

At Rodgers’ first minicamp in June 2005, quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell told the Journal Sentinel the rookie “performed erratically” and was “overwhelmed by an onslaught of new information.” The rookie regularly under threw receivers, struggled against the blitz and abandoned deep passes in his first preseason.

Thanks to COVID, at least they didn’t have to ride those bikes this year.

And this time around, there were no Favre-ian allies looking to throw him under the bus; he damned sure didn’t want to turn into The Gunslinger at this stage in his career. Instead, Rodgers was going to sit back and let performance speak for itself. It wasn’t his job to bury the new kid; it was his job to take this rag-tag bunch back to the playoffs. And if he showed the kid up by returning to MVP form, so much the better.

Look – there’s no real surprise to the upcoming season. If it goes ahead, the Packers are going to go 10-6, with a 6-2 record in the division. The rest of the NFC North is objectively terrible; only the Bears have an outside shot at dethroning them, and only because of their defence. This whole season is being played amid the growing speculation Aaron Rodgers is a brewing volcanic eruption, waiting to go off & destroy whatever lies in his path. He has left a trail of metaphorical bodies in his wake. But if you analyze the trail of events leading up to the 2020 NFL season, and how events over Aaron Rodgers’ career have seemed to be convenient, those bodies might not just be metaphorical after all.