Bye week blog notes: Aaron Rodgers unedited
By Lori Nickel of the Journal Sentinel
Nov. 12, 2010 9:00 a.m. |(14) Comments
In his third year as starter in the NFL, Aaron Rodgers has 2,300 passing yards and looks to be on pace for a third consecutive 4,000-yard season.
This summer, just before the season began, Rodgers talked openly about his football career, his goals, and his desire to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl. That interview, at his home in San Diego, led to two stories:
I. how badly he was treated by some after the Favre trade.I kept taking it for awhile. And then I built up a wall. I didn't know where to go with it," said Rodgers. "I tried to talk to people about it, but people who weren't in Green Bay, it's kind of hard to explain what was going on. I could feel the air of uncertainty and the weirdness that was associated with everything.
II. a profile on the toughness that defines Rodgers and his determination to succeed.
I think Rodgers is a complex man. He can be revealing and guarded, laid back and opinionated, competitive and supportive, loyal and protective, all at the same time. He's often a step ahead of the conversation. He remembers small details and conversations from years ago. He's funny. His word count, per minute, is way up there. Unless he's angry -- when he broke the bone in his foot years ago, it was clear he did not want to be approached, and later it became clear why -- he was very upset and needed to deal with it alone. There's a lot to the guy. And those are pretty long stories for a newspaper. Still, the interview covered even more ground. So, for the final day of my Packers bye week blogs, I thought I would share with you additional parts of that conversation with Green Bays 26-year-old signal caller:
~ On coach Mike McCarthy.
Did you ever air out your thing with Mike over the San Francisco pick? (The 49ers took Alex Smith at No. 1 overall; Rodgers sweated it in the green room and dropped to 24.)
When he first came in, he wanted to put it to bed right away. He said, 'I was in San Francisco, we picked Alex, now I'm here, let's move on.' I'm like alright. That's fine. But the last couple of years I have been able to air out, through, in jest -- that's been the best part -- teasing him because he didn't think I was athletic. Teasing him about, Mike Nolan saw something in Alex's eyes that he didn't see in mine. That's why he wanted to pick him.
Rodgers works very well with McCarthy now. Coach McCarthy talks about this: When we make a decision, it is our decision. So it's not going to be like, yeah Mike called that play. And it didn't work. I don't really think I've really said that ever. I usually try to give him credit, even if it might be an audible.
~ The Belt.
I've taken some heat about my celebration dance, the belt and the other dumb things I've done and my brother and I laugh about those because that started on the basketball court, playing basketball with him. That started messing around in open gyms, messing around playing flag football with some buddies. Its just the fun and the love of the game coming out with wacky celebrations. I just hope those are just never misrepresented that I am trying to draw attention my myself. That started on the scout team with Ruvell Martin, after he scored a touchdown, to make that so fun that the guys looked forward to that every day."
~ Private life.
Guess what the No. 1 question is that I get asked about you from other women?
I don't think its anybody's business, whether I am dating, not dating, who that person is, what they do, I really don't feel that's anybody's business. That's my personal life. My public life is scrutinized as much as possible by people, positively or negatively. I don't believe my personal life needs to be scrutinized the same way. As much as possible I hope to stay out of TMZ and the public eye on that.
It's a need to know basis. Whether it is the media or friends you don't know as well as other ones. I mean, somebody I went to high school with and I haven't seen him for 10 years and I see him on the street, I don't know if I need to get in to all the details of who I am meeting and how I met them and all that stuff. Same thing with random reader in pick a city Wisconsin. Who I am dating, where she is from, what she looks like, what she has to say about it, what she does, I don't think that's anybody's business.
For example we were at the Evening of Elegance with Donald Driver. And Al Harris is standing next to me. And this lady came up to me and said something like, hey I hear you're dating so and so. And I said, 'ma'am that's none of your business.' And Al was like, whoa! I said well, it's really not, is it? People lose sight of the fact that we are normal people and there's just some things you wouldn't ask of people you don't know. Or say to people you don't know.
"I'm just going to be more honest. And in doing that I felt liberated from a lot of the things that were holding me back from truly enjoying everything I do. The football part I have always enjoyed that but it is the off the field, it is fame and attention. Someone comes up to me at dinner and asks for a picture. I say well, if you're here when I'm done, we can maybe do a picture. Right now I'm having dinner.
So you like boundaries.
Yeah.
We all need our space.
Yup. That's normalcy. That's normalcy to me.
That's healthy, and I get it -- but your reaction will come off the wrong way to some people, me-first people.
It can. But you know what? Put yourself in my shoes.
Would hate it. Fame ruins everything.
Just think about it. And honestly that's my only hope. Not trying to be an ass, not trying to prove a point, it is to try and get people to in some way think about -- just reverse roles for a second. Or just having some common courtesy. Like hey, this guy might have signed for 30 minutes already."
Rodgers gave an example. He said he signed autographs for a minor league baseball team back home for several hours, perhaps from 3 p.m. until almost 11 p.m. It was also for charity. He left the game, but there were still some fans who wanted more. And then he said he saw a write-up the next day, blasting him for ducking out.
"I had been there at the ball park for eight hours. And I'd signed a ton of autographs and done pictures. But when there's 2,200 people that go to the game and there's 80,000 people living in Chico, and they read that article, unfortunately there's going to be people who think negatively about me and they have no idea what went on that day.
I tell fans that everybody you know or meet wants something from you. You can't have a day off.
And that's why I like it here (San Diego) I don't have to be on all the time. It's tough to be on all the time, it's draining.
I've wondered if you were a little moody too; or is it more, what has happened that day?
"I think it goes more with what happened that day. When you always have to been 'on' that day ... or, there might have been an argument, with Mike ... or I might have had a bad practice. Or I had to deal with something off the field. Or I'm exhausted. Or, I have been scheduled to do a bunch of stuff. Or I might just be in a bad mood."