The NFL was concerned about what will happen with the disgruntled superstar quarterback in determining how many times to put Green Bay in primetime.

“That got us a little nervous,” Howard Katz, the league’s senior VP of broadcasting, told Peter King of NBC Sports.

In the end, the Packers were still featured prominently early in the year. They play on “Monday Night Football” the second week of the second against the Lions and “Sunday Night Football” the following week against the 49ers. They are also part of doubleheaders to start the year and the fourth week of the season. Later in the year, the Packers have three more primetime games, against the Cardinals, Bears and Vikings, although those games could be flexed out.

“The Green Bay Packers are still the Green Bay Packers, with or without Aaron Rodgers,” Katz said. “They’re a great team and a great brand. We started to think about some of the permutations of the schedule. Ultimately, when he didn’t get traded, we couldn’t solve for something we didn’t know. It was pretty deliberate the way we maxed out the Packers early in the season. You’re right that each of the networks has their bite at the Packers in the first month. That was deliberate.”

Rodgers — frustrated by years of being left out of personnel decisions — is currently trying to force his way off the Packers, while the team is determined to keep him.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Zach Braziller