Growing up not far south of Green Bay, I’ve been a Packers fan for as long as I can remember. Probably even longer. When I was born, the Vince Lombardi-coached Packers were the reigning NFL Champions (having beaten the New York Giants only a few months earlier), and they’ve won it all five times since then.
So yeah, I love the Packers. And it doesn’t hurt that they’ve had two straight MVP-caliber quarterbacks over the past quarter-century or so. I can only vaguely remember the Green Bay Packers of the 1980s. Not nearly as futile as some of today’s teams (Detroit, anyone?), but still, completely forgettable to all but the most die-hard fans.
And the Packers have been especially exciting since they hired Matt LeFleur as head coach. He’s in his third season now and is running a record so far of 33-7, which is just about as amazing as it gets (by comparison, Don Shula had a winning percentage of .677 to LaFleur’s .825 – of course this is nowhere near a fair comparison because Shula coached over 30 years). LaFleur is the kind of coach that can actually scheme for the talents of his team, as opposed to the previous coach, Mike McCarthy, whose incompetence given the talent he had probably cost the Packers a couple more Super Bowl victories over the 13 seasons he was with them. Totally unimaginative. Totally unable to make adjustments. Just plain bad.
And so now the combination of LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers is quite the recipe for winning. The Packers have been to the NFC Championship in the two full seasons helmed by LaFleur, and are well on their way to another.
Even though Aaron Rodgers is a knucklehead.
Yeah. The superstar quarterback thinks he can go about his life unvaccinated for COVID without any consequences. Like there’s some kind of magic about his person (or about the “homeopathic method” – a “treatment” rejected by the NFL – he was reported as using) that means he wouldn’t catch the virus. He’s obviously not as smart as he thinks he is.
But is this cause for hand-wringing across the sports world? I’m not seeing it. Well, I am, but I’m not seeing the justification for it. COVID is a real bear (and that’s an understatement), but millions of Americans have opted to live with it and the consequences of not taking precautions. The rest of us have gotten vaccinated to great effect. And sure, I’ve had to be especially cautious because of knuckleheads like Rodgers, but I’m not really worried about COVID being any worse than a bad cold if I catch it. If I lived in the States, it’d be business as usual for all it matters to me. I just happen to be caught in a situation where I can’t afford to catch it because of the international nature of my current residence and employment (and having to deal with multiple countries when I travel).
So I kind of look at those who are calling for Rodgers’s head with a kind of, “whatever” attitude. He’s made his bed, he’s got to lie in it. He’s got COVID, and he’s unvaccinated. He’s a healthy, fairly-young man. He should pull through. But he might die too. That’s one of the risks you’ve got to accept if you opt to go about unvaccinated. And I certainly feel for those who can’t get vaccinated. I’ve got someone I love dearly in that boat. But for the likes of Rodgers, I don’t particularly care. I love watching him play football, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a knucklehead prima donna. His problems don’t earn any sympathy from me in the slightest. And I say this as a lifelong fan of the team for which he plays.
And in that respect (as a fan of the Packers), I’m not bothered at all. I’ve advocated for the Packers actually dumping Rodgers on more than one occasion, and now we’re going to get a good look at whether that’s a practicality. Personally, I think a good part of the Packers winning is now due as much to coaching as anything else. LaFleur knows how to adjust. He knows how to game-plan. He knows how to motivate. And here’s where Rodgers’s backup, Jordan Love, will have to prove his abilities — in whether he can execute whatever LaFleur puts in place. It doesn’t mean he’s got to be able to uncork 60-yard throws that drop on a dime. It just means, can he do what the coach is asking of him — and the rest of the team (there are other players playing you know). This upcoming game against the Kansas City Chiefs will tell us a lot. Who knows? They might just come out and win.
Lifelong Packer fan that I am, I think they will…
