Fueled by tough love (not hate), Davante Adams morphs into Jordy Nelson
GREEN BAY — Jordy Nelson has been a lot of things to Davante Adams over the years.
Teammate. Mentor. Friend. Hater.
Wait, hater?
Yep. At least if you ask Adams
Adams enters the Green Bay Packers’ regular-season finale against the Detroit Lions having caught 117 passes for 1,498 yards and 11 touchdowns — meaning he needs 22 yards to break Nelson’s franchise single-season receiving yardage record of 1,519 set in 2014, when Adams was a rookie.
And Adams does so believing that, upon his arrival as a second-round pick from Fresno State, Nelson, the team’s No. 1 receiver and quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ established go-to guy, hated him.
“I don’t know if he’s told you guys, but he’s told me multiple times: He thought I didn’t like him, that I hated him, that I didn’t want him there,” Nelson recounted during an interview on ESPN Wisconsin earlier this season. “But I was just hard on him.”
As you might guess, Adams remembers that time a bit differently.
“No, he hated me,” Adams replied, smirking, when told of Nelson’s comments. “Well, I take it back. Jordy didn’t hate me (specifically). But he hated rookies.
“I came in mouth shut, quiet, just coming in and doing my thing. I never thought I knew everything. He told me I thought I knew everything, but I literally didn’t even speak in the meetings. I think he was just trying to justify his being mean to me.”
That eventually changed, of course, as Nelson saw Adams grow and improve. But Adams never forgot.
That eventually changed, of course, as Nelson saw Adams grow and improve. But Adams never forgot.
“When I called him out about it — I didn’t say anything until we were best friends by that point — I just told him that I didn’t appreciate that. And that I thought he hated me. He said that that wasn’t the case. He said it was just rookies. (He said), ‘You thought you knew everything coming in.’ But he was just making stuff up at that point.
“For everybody out there, Jordy did hate me when I first got here. But now I couldn’t ask for a better friend. So, we’re good.”
On Sunday at Ford Field, Adams can get back at his friend by breaking his record. And if Nelson wants to cite the NFL’s first 17-game season as being the reason Adams breaks it — assuming he plays, as coach Matt LaFleur insisted throughout the week that he and Rodgers will — it’s worth pointing out that Adams missed the Packers’ Oct. 28 win at Arizona while sidelined with COVID-19, despite being vaccinated.
“It’s been impressive,” Nelson said. “Talk about a guy who’s grown over (time). This is Year 8 for him now. From a guy who came in very young, obviously very explosive and very talented, but just needed to fine-tune everything and become that professional where it was week-in and week-out, every practice, every game.
“The confidence and mindset that he obviously now has is that, no matter who it is across from him, they have no chance. And it might be two or three guys and they still don’t have a chance sometimes.”
Strong leader
What might be just as impressive about Adams, in talking with LaFleur, Rodgers, wide receivers coach Jason Vrable, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and wideout Allen Lazard, is Adams’ evolution as a leader.
Because for as good as Adams has been in recent years — after his 11 receptions for 136 yards and a touchdown in last Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings, no one in the NFL has caught more passes (575) for more yards (7,137) and more touchdowns (69) since the start of the 2016 season than Adams — somewhere during that time, the 29-year-old morphed into the grumpy old man he claims Nelson was to him.
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