The story is very familiar to Green Bay Packers fans: when the team decided to select Aaron Rodgers in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft, their incumbent quarterback, Brett Favre, was not happy.
And he let everyone know about it, including his successor.
For his part, Rodgers kept his head down and picked up whatever he could from watching the eventual Hall of Famer play the quarterback position.
Fast forward 15 years to 2020, and Rodgers found himself in the same position as Favre: feeling like he was on top of his game, but seeing Green Bay take his eventual successor in the NFL Draft.
That, of course, was Jordan Love, the current Packers starting quarterback.
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Jordan Love, Once Again, Describe How Well Aaron Rodgers Treated Him
Over the past several years, there has been a narrative pushed by many members of the national media that Rodgers is a bad teammate. Some of these claims started to pop up during his final years with the Packers, but they gained steam and notoriety while he was with the New York Jets.
The only problem with these claims is that they hardly ever came from players that actually were teammates with Rodgers. And, for his part, Love has always praised his predecessor for how welcoming he was despite the narrative surrounding them immediately following the 2020 NFL Draft.
In his recent post on the Players Tribune, Love once again praised Rodgers for what he did for him as a mentor and teammate:
“I don’t think it really set in for me until I started doing interviews, and every question was basically, ‘What about Aaron?’
“In my mind, I was like, ‘What do you mean? He’s one of the best to ever do it. I’m about to learn everything I can from this dude.’
“But before me and Aaron could even talk, the narrative was rolling. And it’s so crazy to me, because from the jump, Aaron was great with me. He laid out how he was in my same situation, and that he wanted to make sure there was no hostility. I told him I just wanted to learn and soak it all in.
“I mean, I’d been a QB2 for a lot of my life. For me, it was nothing new. It was perfect, actually. Think about it: you’re coming into this league at 21 years old. It’s a different world. I’m not even talking about just football. You have to be able to command a room and know how to talk to different guys, how to motivate them — what to say, what not to say. I got to watch Aaron and how he handled those situations, and that was invaluable.”
Love went on to describe how he learned from watching his legendary predecessor, how he picked up on when defenses were making substitutions too late, how he built chemistry with Davante, how he “manipulated” defenses instead of just “playing” against them.
He also said that the biggest thing he learned from Rodgers was that the most important thing in the NFL, in games, in practices, in everything, is to be consistent.
And when it came time for Love to take over as the Packers starting quarterback, he knew what was expected. So did his mother, he told him, “Big shoes to fill. You going to be alright? You gotta play good, or they’ll get another quarterback.”
Fortunately, for Love and the Packers, he has been as good as they could have hoped and continues to get better. And Rodgers’ mentoring and welcoming demeanor played a big role in that.
More Green Bay Packers News from Wisconsin Sports Heroics
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- Brett Favre Releases Emotional Statement as Sterling Sharpe Gets Inducted into Hall of Fame
- Packers WR Christian Watson Reveals Mindset Amid ACL Recovery
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