Aaron Rodgers greeting fans in 2011 at Lambeau Field, where he’s a kind of god. Photograph by Mike Morebeck.
There’s something magnificent about watching an athlete in his prime. Witness Novak Djokovic. The same can be said of Aaron Rodgers, arguably the NFL’s finest player. Having won the league’s MVP Award last season, he’s off to a dream start as his team, the Green Bay Packers, has gone 3 and 0, including a decisive 38-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. (Next up – the troubled San Francisco 49ers, whose QB, my beloved Colin Kaepernick, isn’t exactly inviting comparisons to Rodgers this year. Did anyone say 4 and 0?)
Rodgers, the NFC’s offensive player of the week, is probably what casual observers think of when they think of a quarterback. And indeed, he was in part the inspiration for Tam Tarquin, the golden QB and love interest in “The Penalty For Holding,” the forthcoming novel in my series “The Games Men Play.” Like Tam, Rodgers is supremely gifted, brilliant and beautiful with large, luminous blue eyes and a confidence that also suggests a caring quality. We’re not talking Tom Brady here, although that cuts both ways. Brady has four Super Bowl rings to Rodgers’ one. Is that the result of skill, luck or both? Is Brady surrounded by a better team (the New England Patriots) or is he better at bringing out his team’s quality?
That said, Rodgers is younger and far more mobile. In a way, it’s like comparing Nole to Roger Federer. Feddy Bear has more Slams. But he can’t dominate anymore the way Nole can. So perhaps it’s a question of greatest to date versus the greatest today.
In any event, Rodgers’ play has put journalists into statistical paroxysm. It’s also led to the kind of laudatory psychological sports journalism that borders on the fanzine.
The funny thing about stories that bend over backward to flatter is that they often end up revealing their subjects’ flaws. The Rodgers who emerges in Greg Bishop’s Sports Illustrated profile is a bit of a control freak. He’s smart but also a know-it-all. He has a phenomenal memory. But he also never forgets a slight. (Is that why he tweaked Seattle Seahawks’ religious quarterback Russell Wilson after the Hawks lost to Rodgers’ Packers by saying, “God was a Packers’ fan tonight’? Was Rodgers still smarting from his team collapsing against the Hawks in last season’s National Football Conference championship game? Or was Rodgers trying to show his sophistication as a Christian who, unlike Wilson, doesn’t think that God cares about the outcome of football games?)
Wouldn’t the really smart, caring person just let it go?
Ah, but apparently Rodgers can’t. And, as any football fan knows, there’s a penalty for holding.