The Green Bay Packers division clinching win Sunday night at Ford Field in Detroit should put an end to any and all questions regarding the leadership of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
With his team down and practically out, sitting at a pathetic 4-6 just two short months ago, Rodgers made the statement that has now officially entered Green Bay Packers sound bite lore, right alongside and perhaps even bypassing “R-E-L-A-X.”
“I think we can run the table. I really think we can.”
When Aaron Rodgers put himself and his teammates on the line with this quote for the ages, I felt the team’s response would be a strong indication of how this Packers locker room views Rodgers as a teammate, leader and man.
Because to be honest, I wasn’t sure myself. Just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean your teammates are going to love you and rally around you. Coming into this year, I was starting to get the feeling that not only was it possible that Mike McCarthy had lost touch with the locker room, but that their star quarterback’s presence and demeanor wasn’t helping either.
Based on media portrayals painting a rather one-sided view of Rodgers as a leader or lack of leader, this situation Rodgers created felt like the perfect testing ground to determine what those men inside the locker room really think about No. 12.
And with the Packers 31-24 victory over division rival Detroit Sunday night, there should be no doubt. Aaron Rodgers is a motherfucking leader.
And who out there among us believed he was serious and that this team could actually pull it off?
Let’s be real… no one expected them to run the table, but none of that matters.
Thankfully, leadership has nothing to do with assholes like Skip Bayless, elitists like Colin Cowherd and ignorant morons like myself and the other guys who write for this site.
It doesn’t even have anything to do with what people say about someone’s leadership. Like Greg Jennings and Jermichael Finley, after the fact. They are serving an agenda, a personal agenda based on personal disappointment and regret.
And let’s face it… leadership can’t even be determined by what current teammates say because they know every comment they make could end up going viral. So any lip service paying tribute to strong leadership might be just that. Lip service.
Leadership can only be measured and determined in one way. By the actions of those being led and exposed to the leadership being offered.
What other barometer could there possibly be?