We have a good feeling Aaron Rodgers and former Journal-Sentinel writer Bob McGinn didn’t get along too well.
McGinn has made no secret that he was never trying to be friends with the Green Bay Packers he covered. However, what he had to say about Rodgers on the way out the door was a little surprising.
McGinn got a spread on The MMQB for god knows what reason. Apparently so he could blather on about philosophy and rue the day that newspapers died. But gravy head Peter King also managed to ask him some questions along the way.
The one that caught my eye was one about how fortunate Rodgers was that he didn’t have play immediately. Here’s McGinn:
“He was a very poor player here for his first two summers and regular-season practices. Fortunately for him, and he knows that down deep, he didn’t have to play early. His delivery was a mess, bad body language, he didn’t know how to deal with teammates. He learned so much from Brett Favre on how to in some ways be one of the guys and relate, and he became much more of a leader. He was really poor and how many great players have ever had a start like that? Not that many. A lot of scouts look at that exhibition tape those first two years and he was a little bit better the third year, but not to any degree, and then he just really developed. He lost a lot of close games in ’08, but by ’09 he was playing great and by 2010 he was maybe the best in the business. And then there have been a lot of playoff disappointments and poor performances. It’s a quarterback league and all the rules are designed for that quarterback to dominate, and he hasn’t done it in the most important times since 2010.”
That’s kind of a double slam right there.
We are inclined to agree with the second part to a degree. Rodgers has had the misfortune of playing with some poor defenses and that’s primarily what most of us blame the playoff misfortune on.
That said, Rodgers has been to three NFC title games. He’s 1-2. In the second those contests, in Seattle, he played like utter garbage. Say what you want about the other miscues, even an average Rodgers makes that game a non-contest.
We’ve heard plenty of stories about Rodgers’ early years in Green Bay. Arrogance and awkwardness are the two words that spring immediately to mind. Not knowing how to deal with teammates, yes. That we can see.
It’s news that he just wasn’t that good. Maybe Brett Favre would have been dumped earlier if Rodgers had shown something sooner.
McGinn was also posed the eternal question: Rodgers or Favre.
“Would I take Favre or Rodgers? Right now, Favre. Because he was there every single game and he inherited a team that was the armpit of the NFL. It’s one of the greatest reclamation projects in NFL history. Favre just did it all from nothingness.”
That’s a decent point. Rodgers came into a much better situation.
Ultimately, that question will always come down to Super Bowl wins to me. And since they’re currently tied at one, it then comes to statistics and accolades. So I’ll currently take the guy with the three MVPs and the NFL records.
Still though, Rodgers must have crapped in McGinn’s cereal at some point.