David Bakhtiari’s recent comments on the popular Bussin’ With The Boys podcast sent a stir across Packers Nation. Between his use of the term “they” when referring to the team and his language when assessing Green Bay’s potential, Bakhtiari gave fans and media a lot to run with.
“The Packers are rebuilding, whether you think so or not.” Bakhtiari said when asked about Green Bay’s leverage in a Rodgers deal. “Could they be good? I don’t know. Could they be bad? Probably if you’re betting more people are gonna think they’re gonna be bad than good, right? Isn’t that fair to say?”
Articles were written and hot takes were given. Bakhtiari quickly became a target for Cheesehead’s frustrations. But anyone who actually watched the entire three hour podcast knew better. They had more context for what Bakhtiari was saying. They could see his intentions and tone as opposed to those who read the selective quotes online or listened to a talking head debate them.
For those unwilling to watch the full show, Bakhtiari himself has now attempted to clarify his comments.
Appearing on the OpenMike podcast on Colin Cowherd’s Volume Network, Bakhtiari spoke with longtime friend and famed journalist Mike Silver.
“Yeah, I think there’s been a little bit of awkwardness and I think that just stems from the lack of understanding and the fact that I have to spell it out. I guess this is the platform to do it.
“They” is the front office. I am not the front office. Like I said before, when I act rationally and I take my emotions out and look from a business standpoint I’m thinking from a 3rd person point of view. So it’s almost annoying the fact that I have to explain that…By responding to any of this it creates credibility and makes it more real [but] this is just people going off on a tangent and nitpicking [the] words for what?
I’m not the type of person who’s going to assassinate my sentences so there’s a type of cryptic message…If I felt like I wanted to disassociate, I would flat out say I’m going to disassociate. And that’s pretty black and white. There’s no gray area with me. So again, if I have to spell it out even further, “they” means front office of the Green Bay Packers when I’m trying to talk about said negotiation tactic.
My whole point was where are the Packers seeing their leverage? And then my thought was if I’m in the front office, I would assume that this is probably the hill they’re dying on…That is as black-and-white as I can get and I’m almost excited to see how people can still pull that apart and make their own reality. And if you’re gonna live in the reality you wanna live in, great. I’m not gonna change your mind. Now if you want to listen to what my mind says, fantastic. But don’t make something fake real.”
Mike Silver:
“Some of the pearl clutching I’m seeing is because you said they are rebuilding and I’m like yeah it’s because you’re rebuilding.”
Bakhtiari:
“We’re moving on from a Hall of Fame quarterback! Literally today I talked to Jordan about this. I’m like the Packers rebuilt from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. What are we going to say? It’s not a rebuild? That is what that is. And that’s totally fine. I’m not saying we’re going to be bad. I’m not saying we’re going to be good. I don’t know and that’s the beauty. No one really knows until we start the season.
Now I’m assuming Vegas has their odds and they’re gonna put us pretty low. Great.
Again, I have no idea. I’m on the team and I have no idea. A lot of teams don’t know. And all of us are getting the same coach speak every year about ‘this is a championship team. We’re gonna be out there in the Super Bowl.’ Your G— Damn right I F——-g hope so! But let’s also probably take a breather halfway through the year and see where we are…And I’m just trying to look at it from a very honest and real perspective and I’m not gonna live in a fake reality. I’m gonna see exactly where my team is at. It’s funny when me and Jordan have a laugh about it. And it’s just like where everyone outside the building, their mind runs rampant. Oh, ‘it’s a disrespect to Jordan. He doesn’t care about the team.’ When did I ever say I didn’t care about Jordan? If I didn’t care about Jordan, I’d say I don’t care about Jordan. If I don’t like the team, I’ll say I don’t like the team. But I’m under contract, I’m in Green Bay. I’m showing up phase 1. I’m having a good time. I’m having great laughs. Me and Jordan are having good conversations and trying to go golfing next week. We’re trying to build rapport and chemistry. That’s what you do as a team to be a teammate. That’s why part of me just loves sitting back and just kind of watching the chaos and then you really see who starts swarming.”
As Bakhtiari said, that’s about as clear as he can make it. For fans who overreacted in the last couple weeks you’d be wise to watch his entire episode on the Volume. It’s worthwhile.
