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Rodgers: Players to blame for Goodell's excessive power

Jeremy Brevard / USA TODAY Sports

Aaron Rodgers isn't wasting time whining about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell having too much power. He knows who's to blame.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback is in danger of losing teammates Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers to suspensions if they don't cooperate with a league investigation into reports by Al Jazeera claiming they've used PEDs.

Rodgers says the players had the opportunity to keep Goodell from possessing the power to suspend players at will when they last negotiated their collective bargaining agreement, but failed to do so.

"If that is the case, we have nobody to blame but ourselves," Rodgers told "The Jim Rome Show," according to ESPN's Jason Wilde, when asked if Goodell has too much power. "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."

Matthews and Peppers, along with free agent Mike Neal and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, are working with the NFLPA to decide how to proceed after being threatened with suspensions.

Rodgers believes the case should be dropped by the league after retired quarterback Peyton Manning, who was also named in the PED report, was fully cleared of any wrongdoing and accuser, and Charlie Sly rescinded his claims.

"I think it's pretty typical of how things have been going with them lately," Rodgers said of the NFL pursuing the investigation. "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.

"Now these guys, first of all, we stand behind them 100 percent, our guys. 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.

"I just think as far as the league goes, there's been some negative things that have come their way and the way they've responded has maybe not been the best way to handle it."

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