This is one Packer fan getting tired of Aaron Rodgers’ big baby act

Oh how people forget, especially Aaron Rodgers. He should remember how he was treated by Brett Favre, who was quite candid about his belief that he didn’t feel that it was his “job” to mentor Rodgers. He certainly should recall how Favre had made it a habit leaving the team in “suspense” while he toyed with retirement, usually just a ploy to avoid off-season workouts. After Favre pierced Packer fans’ hearts (again) in the 2007 NFC Championship Game with another horrible interception in OT against the Giants, Favre announced his retirement, and Rodgers was named the team’s starting quarterback for the 2008 season. But then Favre—after insuring that he had taken enough time off—decided to “unretire.” Packer management stood by Rodgers, and eventually traded Favre.

And now Rodgers is pulling a similar big baby act, except that this time team management has gone out its way to inform the world that they intend on honoring his contract. Rodgers first demanded that his contract be renegotiated to make it harder for the team to trade him, and now he is demanding the team trade him! Stephen A. Smith of ESPN is the one who is “freakin” about Rodgers, not the Packers. His Rodgers fan-boy antics are becoming increasingly tiresome. Chad Reuter of NFL.com gave the Packer 2021 draft class an “A” grade, but others, like Smith, were less “forgiving” of the Packer picks because they allegedly “disrespected” Rodgers. 

Yeah, and what about the team? This is a “team” game you know. The Packers still have most of the offensive squad that brought the team to the cusp of the Super Bowl, and you would think that it would just take a mite more “seasoning” under a new system for the team to take that next step. But no, you have to sign a headache diva free agent receiver as the “missing” piece.

Most Packer fans have been willing to “forgive” the fact that since 1998 Favre and Rodgers have led the team to exactly one Super Bowl appearance, and it isn’t all the fault of the coaching or the management. Players have to play, and all too often we saw Favre make stupid, hair-pulling mistakes, which Viking fans experienced firsthand with that across-the-body pass that ended their Super Bowl hopes in  2009.  With Rodgers, for every stretch of near-perfection, there were those long stretches of three-and-outs that made one question why he is considered such a “great” quarterback.

This guy has failed in his last four NFC championship games, and was blown away by the Giants in the 2011 divisional game at home following a 15-1 season. I don't blame Mike McCarthy or management for Rodgers failing to put the game away despite five Seahawk turnovers in the 2014 championship game. I don’t blame Matt LaFleur or management for Rodgers failing to take advantage of three Tom Brady interceptions, or misfiring on three straight passes on first-and-goal—the team is to blame, and that starts with Rodgers. Don’t say that Rodgers didn’t have the “weapons”; through most of his years with the Packers he had top-flight talent to work with, and he still failed to bring home the bacon almost every time.

And not to be too cynical about this, but note that Rodgers’ antics started to ratchet-up after he announced his engagement to actress Shailene Woodley, just another out-of-the-woodwork Barbie Doll actress with none of that “old school” Hollywood star power. You think Woodley hasn’t made it clear that she isn’t too keen on spending six months out of the year commuting back-and-forth from the “frozen tundra” backwoods of Green Bay? It is said Rodgers wants to be closer to the tinsel town action after his stint on Jeopardy; oh, so he is going to skip a couple of practices or games to host a show or two?

Let’s take a step back and look at history. Brett Favre was going nowhere fast in Atlanta, and Favre acted the part when he was with the Falcons. Nobody really believed in him—not even Mike Holmgren initially—but Packer GM Ron Wolf did. Aaron Rodgers was considered a “project” by every team that passed him by, until the Packers drafted him late in the first round—and three years later they made the move that was unpopular with many fans when they took Favre at his word that he was “retiring” and handed the keys of the team to Rodgers. 

So now Rodgers doesn’t want to play for the Packers after all he has “done” for the team and the fans? He certainly made himself look “good” anyways (even though it takes eleven to tango, as they say), but I never understood why many thought he was one the “greatest” after all the failures in all those NFC championship games. Better than Drew Brees? Why? Greater than Bart Starr? I don’t think so; his career has been one largely of broken promises. If he doesn’t want to play for the Packers, then trade him to another team that he doesn’t want to play for, or let him retire and get that gig on Jeopardy, if that was anything more than a temporary “gimmick” to get people to watch the show out of curiosity.

Rodgers has most of the rest of the sports world playing his tune, and acting as if the team “owes” him; the Packers and their fans are owed what he promised them—to play the team into Super Bowls, and save for one time, he has failed them. He is in no position to be demanding anything; he has had more than enough opportunities to justify both the team’s and the fans' faith in him.