LLAS – For the past several days – and really, for the past several years – Aaron Rodgers(notes) has done his best to avoid the F-word.
Though his story is inevitably framed in reference to his legendary predecessor, and reporters naturally try to get him to expound on the topic, Rodgers treats Favre as a dirty word, part of a prolonged and concerted effort to take the high road on a very sensitive subject in Titletown.
In truth, however, any mention of Brett Favre(notes) should bring a smile to Rodgers’ face as the Green Bay Packers’ emerging star of a quarterback prepares to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium. That’s because, while Favre didn’t offer Rodgers a whole lot of support during their three years as teammates, he ended up helping to smooth the road for his successor’s ascent.In leaving the Packers under obviously acrimonious terms and making a desperate push to play for the rival Minnesota Vikings, Favre not only helped Rodgers overcome the skepticism of a dubious fan base but also galvanized the locker room.
“I think you hit the story dead on,” Nick Barnett(notes), the Packers’ injured veteran middle linebacker, told me last week. “If Brett had just gone to the Jets [in ’08] and kept that going, it’d be a whole different thing. But once he came to Minnesota, and you knew a lot of [bad feelings about the Packers] were still with him, some people felt, ‘Oh no, that’s b.s.’ So a lot of fans embraced Aaron even faster than they otherwise would have.
“As for the locker room, there were guys who supported Brett, and some guys who supported Aaron, but when it came down to it guys were going to rally behind our quarterback. When Brett got to the Vikings, it made us want to beat him more. At the same time, we knew [playing for a rival] could happen to any of us because it is a business. But yeah, emotionally, it made an impact.”
Not everyone I’ve talked to is as convinced that Favre’s post-Green Bay behavior gave Rodgers a boost. Everyone, however, seems to agree that Rodgers’ poise, restraint and steady play in his first season as a starter showed his teammates he was up to the task of replacing an icon.
By showing that he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by a daunting situation, Rodgers instilled a faith that carries over to this day. No one in the organization worries that the first-time Super Bowl quarterback will buckle under the weight of America’s most hyped sporting event because they saw how cool he was amid a charged post-Favre atmosphere.
“The thing most people were trying to see was how [Rodgers] would respond in the media,” veteran cornerback Charles Woodson(notes) said Tuesday during media-day interviews. “What would he say? What would he do? He’s always taken the high road and never got caught up in what was said, and stayed steady. And then he played well, so we knew we had a guy who, no matter what happened, was going to be OK.”
A few days earlier, I had run my theory by Woodson – that Favre’s zest to join the Vikings following his single season with the Jets and his unconcealed vindictiveness toward Packers general manager Ted Thompson, head coach Mike McCarthy and the organization in general had boosted support for Rodgers internally.
“I don’t buy that,” Woodson said. “What I do buy is that Aaron helped himself by not letting all of that drama surrounding Brett affect him as a person or as our quarterback. And then we rallied around him even more, no doubt
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Sunday, February 6th 2011 at 12:13PM
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