Before we get into today’s Packer game—which could only be described as frustrating rather than “hopeful” for Packer fans—let me point out that all off-season I was saying that it didn’t matter to me if Aaron Rodgers returned to the Packers or not. Like a lot of fans I had grown tired of his self-serving act, and other than making the team competitive, he has repeatedly let the organization down come playoff time. Winning, of course, has a tendency to obscure the issue, but Rodgers’ off-the-rails “interview” with good friend Pat McAfee and former Packer AJ Hawk (who elsewhere slammed Rodgers, but this time was hypocritically content to hear Rodgers’ “side of the story”). Others were not so sanguine, of course; Stephen A. Smith seemed for now to turn against him, and Mike Florio called the spouting of anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, self-serving anti-COVID protocol complaints, and playing the victim “verbal diarrhea.”
Rodgers was clearly disingenuous throughout; why didn’t someone call him out and ask this “critical thinker”—emphasis on critical, not thinker, like “smart” people in Seattle too dumb to remember to bring an umbrella for the rain—and “protector of his body” what exactly was the “ingredient” in the vaccines that would cause an “allergy” in him? 200 million people are fully-vaccinated in this country, and we don’t see them walking around like Zombies in a “Living Dead” movie. 99 percent of COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated people. Rodgers seemed uncomprehending that for (most) people, what’s left of his credibility has tanked.
“His” body? Like all selfish anti-vaxxers—and despite his protestation that he isn’t, he is—isn’t it always about himself, not the people he could pass the virus to, especially given his flouting of protocols for the unvaccinated? From here on out, he can’t be trusted or respected. For years, his antics (much like Brett Favre’s) have been tolerated by the team and fans; if he can’t “lead” the team to the Super Bowl this season, I doubt that many will be sad to see him go after this season, and I wonder how many organizations are really interested in having someone who just does his “own thing” on their team.
Now that Rodgers could potentially miss two games—maybe more if the NFL decides to suspend him for a game for showering such contempt for the league’s COVID protocols—we can see the result of his self-serving narcissism on the field. Despite playing on the road, the Chiefs were a beatable team this year, and with the Packers having its full complement of receiving weapons back (save for Robert Tonyan, who may be out for the season), the Packers would have had the decided edge if Rodgers was playing.
But he wasn’t. With Rodgers losing his game of Russian Roulette with COVID (likely during his maskless Halloween party), and every loss devastating in pursuit of the now just one playoff bye, the result of this supposed “leader” of the team and its “best” player from his selfish act is apparent for all to see. The “knock” on Jordan Love has been that he can play between the “twenties,” but at crunch time, he just doesn’t produce, and this game didn’t disprove that. In the first half, the Packers had one decent drive that ended in missed field goal by Mason Crosby, and then after a foolish fourth down play by the Chiefs that gave put the Packers at the Chiefs’ 37, the Packers again came up empty after Crosby missed another relatively short-range field goal attempt; those two misses proved to be critical at the end, and it would have been a 7-6 game with the defense holding Patrick Mahomes to just 33 yards on his first 9 completions.
Up to that point, Mahomes did not look good for most the first half, and an interception that would put the Packers at the Chiefs 22 was nullified by a defensive offside penalty. The Chiefs were still forced to punt, but Malik Taylor muffed the ball at the Packer 10. But again, Mahomes was ripe for pickings, as he was 12-20 for just 54 yards as the Chiefs settled for a 10-0 lead on just 104 yards of total offense. In the waning moments of the first half, Love connected with Randall Cobb for 35 yards into Chiefs territory, but then Matt LaFleur decided to go for it on fourth down instead of chancing another Crosby field goal attempt, and Love again as in the previous down, misfired short to Davante Adams. With 30 seconds to play in the first half, Mahomes completed one of four passes, but the one for 25 yards, which set-up another field goal as time expired to take a 13-0 halftime lead. The Packers managed 158 yards of total offense in the first half, and scored exactly zero points.
That was pretty much the story of the game, of lost opportunities. The defense played well, shutting out the Chiefs in the second half. But the offense didn’t do much to take advantage of it. If Love was any good, this should have been a winnable game for the Packers. The defenses on both sides gave Love that opportunity, but only once, late in the game, was he able to make that big play—converting on fourth down with a touchdown pass to Allen Lazard. There was still five minutes to play at that point, but Mahomes converted on third-and-10 with under 2 minutes left and ran off the clock for a 13-7 victory. Another thing we learned was that Davante Adams proved that wide receivers are only as “good” as the quarterbacks throwing to them.
Perhaps it would be “easy” to hold Love and Crosby to “blame” for the loss, but the fault also rests comfortably on Rodgers’ shoulders, because of his selfish arrogance. The reason why he didn’t play was not a legitimate one, like being injured, but because of a “personal choice.” And no, Shailene, in your fiancé’s case navigating “stormy” waters doesn’t improve his character or make him “powerful”—it just has him devolving into a crybaby.
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