GREEN BAY — Matt Flynn isn't sure who would have said it, but the Green Bay Packers new/old backup quarterback took exception to the claim that he didn't work hard after signing a free-agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks in March 2012.
Flynn, who left Green Bay for a three-year, $26 million deal ($10 million guaranteed), was beaten out by then-rookie Russell Wilson last year in training camp. This spring, Seahawks general manager John Schneider, a former Packers director of football operations, traded him to Oakland, where another ex-Packers director of football operations, Reggie McKenzie, is the general manager. Oakland cut Flynn Oct. 7, and Flynn signed with the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 14. The Bills released him on Nov. 4.
The Packers signed Flynn to a one-year, minimum-salary deal on Tuesday to back up Scott Tolzien, who'll start in place of an injured Aaron Rodgers on Sunday against the New York Giants.
In a Nov. 9 story by veteran NFL writer Bob McGinn in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , Flynn's work habits were called into question by sources.
"Sources said the major reason Seattle gave the job to Russell Wilson in 2012 and then traded Flynn to Oakland was commitment," McGinn wrote. "Flynn, according to sources, became a 9-to-5er and, not only was he outperformed, he also was outworked. One Seahawks teammate did say Flynn was a master on the ping-pong table. In Oakland, the combination of Flynn's mediocre work habits and an awful showing Sept. 29 in a start against Washington led GM Reggie McKenzie to cut him."
When those anonymous quotes were brought up to Flynn after much of the large crowd around him at his locker had dispersed Wednesday, he vehemently denied that he didn't work hard in Seattle.
"Anybody who says I'm a 9-to-5er is ignorant, just straight forward. I work as hard as anybody does," Flynn said. "I don't try to rub it anybody's faces or do it in front of coaches to make a point that I study. I do my job. I go about my business as a professional.
"I'm never going to have a moment where I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It kind of gets to me a little bit that anybody would say that because that's just an ignorant comment."
Asked if he regretted anything he did in Seattle or Oakland, the 28-year-old Flynn said no.
"I have no regrets about the things I did preparation-wise, knowing what to do," said Flynn, who threw just nine regular-season passes in Seattle and 34 in Oakland, where he started only one game. "Obviously, looking back at games, you wish you had made a throw here or there, but I don't have any regrets about the decisions I made to go places or how I prepare. That's just straight forward. I prepare my tail off and the things that I knew, that I needed to do ... For whatever reason, it didn't work out. There are a lot of factors that go into that. Just didn't work out."
Jason Wilde wrote: