In the end, Aaron Rodgers just couldn’t resist. The opportunity was too good to pass up. We will probably never know if he had a momentary thought about letting it slide and taking the high road. When the chance to metaphorically walk into the end zone and score the easiest of points against the Detroit Lions presented itself late on Monday night, Rodgers took it. Of course he did. “I think we maybe tried to show that we cared a little bit more tonight,” Rodgers told reporters. “I just think people like to say a lot of (expletive) and it’s nice to come back in here after a game like that. “I think there’s even more (overreactions) than when I started playing. There’s so many overreactions that happen on a week-to-week basis. So it’s nice to come out, have a good performance and get the trolls off our back for at least a week.” Were you really surprised? Rodgers doesn’t take slights gently, especially when he feels they are unjust, premature, too specifically focused upon him, or just plain wrong. The Green Bay Packers quarterback is not a water-off-the-duck’s-back kind of guy, he’s a collect-a-doubly-big-pail-of-water-and-throw-it-back-at-you kind of guy. Having heated the water to a near boiling point and added salt to it. It is part of what makes him intriguing, the knowledge that all the noise surrounding the game which we typically assume players either ignore or certainly attempt to, isn’t lost on Rodgers. He doesn’t dismiss what is said about him, he takes it in, percolates it, and if he doesn’t like the sound of it he’ll wait to fire it right back at you. Rodgers didn’t like any of what he heard following Week 1, when the Packers got chewed up and spit out by the New Orleans Saints in a mighty, and mightily unexpected shellacking. It was the biggest defeat of his career and the viewpoints to come from it weren’t especially generous. They mostly revolved around his level of perceived commitment following a summer of uncertainty that ultimately ended with him signing a restructured deal that paved the way for him to exit Green Bay after this season. Monday night’s four-touchdown performance in a 35-17 win over the Lions was an appropriate answer, his words afterwards an even more emphatic one and it all proved one thing beyond doubt. That whatever else Rodgers was doing in the intervening days between the Saints defeat and the Lions victory, he was collecting all the slights and using them to fuel his inner fire. “Part of me would like Aaron Rodgers to be more like Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes and ignore the outside noise,” FS1’s Chris Broussard said on “First Things First.” “But Rodgers is a guy that plays his best football when he’s paying attention to the haters and he feels like he has something to prove.” Co-host Nick Wright described Rodgers as having “rabbit ears,” a reference to how the QB doesn’t miss any of what is said about him, during good times and bad. Green Bay’s win achieved the immediate benefit they were seeking, to get the season back on track ahead of a Sunday visit to the San Francisco 49ers that carries a far greater level of difficulty. Until further notice, the Packers must still be considered a genuine Super Bowl contender (+1400 with FOX Bet) and, because its Rodgers and because its Green Bay and because that’s just the way it is, they’ll be one of the most talked about teams in the National Football League. On any given week, Rodgers might love the chatter, he might hate it, he might think it’s (expletive) and he might just keep it in his back pocket for days, or weeks, or entire seasons, ready to unload it with as much force as those TD passes. He knows what you’re saying and he doesn’t miss anything. He sees, reads and hears it all. Shoot, he’s probably reading this right now. I didn’t just troll him, did I? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Here’s what others have said … Skip Bayless, Undisputed: “Aaron Rodgers has probably risen into the Top 10 All-Time QBs. But from this point on, all that matters is what he does in the postseason. I’ll remind you he fell to 1-4 in NFC Championship games by stinking up the fourth quarter vs Brady this past season.” Colin Cowherd, The Herd: “I didn’t learn anything last night from Green Bay… Everybody thought they’d win and win big.” Matt LaFleur, Packers Head Coach: “He is the ultimate competitor and he wants everything to be perfect. He puts a lot of pressure on himself for him to make it perfect.” |
