Thursday Cheese Curds: Aaron Rodgers texts Jordan Love

The first day of training camp is in the books. According to Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, the Packers will have another full-speed day on Thursday before going at a “walkthrough pace” on Friday. If you want to read up on what happened in practice on Wednesday, including some interesting words from LaFleur on tackle David Bakhtiari’s health status, go ahead and click our news and notes post.

Elsewhere in the Packersphere, here’s what’s going on.

Packers’ Jordan Love Says Aaron Rodgers Texted Him Before Opening Camp as Starting QB | Bleacher Report

“Be yourself” is pretty good advice for anyone out there. That seems to be more sound than when Rodgers told his current backup, Zach Wilson, to stop watching so much film a few years ago.

4 Packers sleepers who could steal a key roster spot at training camp | Lombardi Ave

Three of the players are undrafted free-agent rookies with the fourth being an Irish punter by way of the XFL. Another name I’d like to add to the list is tackle Kadeem Telfort, who played at four different colleges in part due to his involvement in a credit card fraud scandal. Talent isn’t the problem there.

Fans from all over the globe arrive for Green Bay Packers Training Camp, some for deeper reasons | WFRV

Chime in down in the comments if you’ve ever been to a Packers’ training camp. I’m still hoping I can make it out for the joint practices against the New England Patriots. It seems like those events are bigger than the actual preseason games now, with how many starters are held out.

Aaron Rodgers takes massive pay cut for the Jets | Pro Football Talk

This, honestly, was a surprise to me. Rodgers never really turned down money in Green Bay, even though his contracts were reworked to push around his cap hits. Rodgers’ $37.5 million per year deal now ranks 12th in the NFL, tied with the likes of Derek Carr. For perspective, Rodgers brought home $44 million in 2022, which was the most cash of any quarterback who didn’t sign a new long-term extension last year.

Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing ‘multi-decade’ program that captures UFOs | Associated Press

It’s not every day that someone under oath claims that the government has known about aliens since the 1930s. Either this guy is full of it or we’re about to find out that we have company.