Maybe it’s time that Aaron Rodgers takes his own advice and to “R-E-L-A-X

 

The Aaron Rodgers soap opera continues, with most sports commentators on his side about the “respect” issue. I think it is a bit cowardly for Rodgers to let others do all his “talking” for him, although we are told he is getting ready to make a “statement.”  Frankly, if this continues to be about the drafting of Jordan Love, and if Love is any more a “problem” for him than Brett Hundley was, then Rodgers’s probably needs to see a psychiatrist to deal with his feelings of “rejection.” Personally, I think the Packers wanted to see how he plays in 2021 before committing to another contract extension; 2020 could certainly have been an anomaly, since four of his previous five seasons saw his passer rating slip into the 90s, which if not “bad” was certainly below his usual standards.

Not everyone is a “fan” of Rodgers. Terry Bradshaw called him “weak-minded” and he needs to “grow up.”  Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe nearly came to blows a few weeks ago when Bayless called Rodgers a “choke” artist. Sharpe argued that if he is such a “choke” artist, then why do Packers want to hold on to him? But wait: wasn’t it Rodgers who was whining about the Packers supposedly not “wanting” him? All we are hearing now is that Rodgers doesn’t want to play on the team that made him a star, and not the “nobody” he thinks people once viewed him as.

Why can’t people call things by their right names in regard to Rodgers? Is Rodgers a “diva”? Yes. Does it matter? Yes, because if the team expects you to be the “face” of the franchise and the leader of the team, then you should act the part. Let’s face some reality here: Rodgers has always nursed grievances like a child, and perhaps they were "justified" when he was still a "kid." He went virtually unnoticed as a high school player, and the only Division 1 team to even offer him as much as a walk-on appearance was Illinois; he received a rejection letter from Purdue that he still talks about. He ended up playing for Butte Community College—that’s right, community college—and he was only noticed by Cal when they were scouting one of teammates.

You would think that he would have nice thoughts about his time at Cal, but no. What sticks in his mind is a female Cal professor giving his study group an “F” for “incorrectly” citing references, and when Rodgers approached her about it, she spoke to him condescendingly about athletes being “entitled,” telling him he’d never make it in the NFL, and wasn’t smart enough to get through school; apparently she wasn’t aware of his 1310 SAT score (out of the then 1600 maximum). It was just another grudge that he has nursed and never forgot. In an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger in 2016, he wore a Butte football t-shirt, which suggested Rodgers continues to have mixed feelings about Cal, which has not gone unnoticed by Cal fans.

Ron Souza was a coach on the Pleasant Valley High School football team when Rodgers played there, and he admits that during the 2005 draft he was called by NFL scouts who were wondering if Rodgers was so good, there must have been a reason why he wasn’t recruited out of high school. Was there some kind of “character” issue or a problem with the law or drugs they should know about? There was in fact a “character” issue, and it is manifesting itself more clearly now.

What were NFL scouts saying about Rodgers? He was a little “short” (you mean like Drew Brees and Russell Wilson?). He was a “system” quarterback who might not “adapt” to NFL play. He has been “busting his ass” to make it since high school, but does he have anything left in the tank? Alex Smith is a better “athlete.” Rodgers is just “ordinary.” He is “mechanically very rigid.” Jeff Tedford quarterbacks can’t make it to the next level. He can’t “create” on his own. Wilts under pressure and is easily flustered. Even today there are those who criticize his mechanics and footwork—and while admitting he plays well in the regular season, he is a “choker” in the playoffs. Rodgers doesn’t just “laugh” those comments off because they were for the most part proved wrong—he just continues to take them personally and “simmers” about them.

Rodgers had a “toxic” relationship with Mike McCarthy from the very beginning, and was upset with the Packers for hiring him. Why? Because McCarthy was the offensive coordinator of the 49ers the year they passed on Rodgers and drafted Alex Smith. Rodgers had been “humiliated” on draft day, claiming he was embarrassed by the failure of the phone to ring and that people he knew were laughing at him, and he blamed McCarthy. Nothing—I mean nothing—that Rodgers says about McCarthy or his complaints about him can be trusted as coming from an honest evaluation of the situation in Green Bay.

In 2011 the Packers went 15-1 and were an offensive juggernaut. In the divisional game against the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants—at home—Rodgers was horrible, playing arguably his worst game of his playoff life. In the 2014 NFC championship game against the Seahawks, it was very convenient for him to lay the blame with McCarthy despite the fact that it was the defense that was keeping the team in the game by forcing four turnovers and short field opportunities in the first half. On two fourth-and-goal opportunities McCarthy called for a field goal. Rodgers claims to have been “enraged”—but maybe more so because he wasn’t given the opportunity to “redeem” himself for failing to punch the ball in when the opportunity was handed to him on a silver platter. Rodgers was in fact playing with an injured shoulder and looked like it throughout the game.

After the loss to the Buccaneers in last year’s championship game, most still say that Rodgers should have been given another chance to “redeem” himself after three straight terrible passes on first-and-goal (and for that terrible interception late in the first half that led to a Buccaneer touchdown with just seconds left). LaFleur made the right call to kick a field goal. It was no “gimme” that Rodgers would convert on fourth down; if he failed, the Packers would still need to get the ball back to score a touchdown and make a 2-point conversion to tie—people keep forgetting that. Rodgers had already failed to convert in three 2-point conversion tries against the Rams and Buccaneers. At least in this scenario, if the Packers got the ball back—and they would have had to if Rodgers had misfired again, and they nearly did save for a questionable pass interference call—they wouldn’t have had to try for a 2-point conversion, which they would not had time to make up for if they missed it.

Yet here we go again with that “respect” thing that in all honesty disrespects Rodgers’ teammates who helped him get as far as he did. Tyler Dunn wrote in 2019 that “Nobody holds a grudge in any sport like Rodgers. When it comes to Rodgers, grudges do not merrily float away. They stick. They grow. They refuel.” Rodgers needs to “grow up” and—what was that he said?—R-E-L-A-X. The Packers will eventually have to move on without him anyways; the way he is acting, it doesn’t matter if it is sooner or later.