Charlie Powell
I recently sat down with Aaron Rodgers for an interview on ESPN Wisconsin for the Wilde & Tausch radio show. Heading into his ninth season as starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers, 32, is now one of the older guys on the team. We discussed how long he sees himself playing and how the loss of Jordy Nelson affected the team last year. Here are excerpts of the interview, edited for length and clarity.
How has the locker room changed with you being one of the old guys in the room?
It is different. I think back to my rookie year and learning to play dominoes with Walt Williams. When there were breaks, we played cards or dominoes or chess one year. You’re always interacting with your teammates. Now, there’s a break, and everybody’s sitting in their locker looking at their phones. It’s just a different type of interaction, and you have to be a little more intentional about starting conversations with guys and getting to know them.
The fun part is when you can get away from here. It’s the road trips, you get to know your teammates a little more, everybody’s a little more engaged and off their phones. But you have to break down the initial barriers of them looking at you like you’re the older guy and this person they watched on TV and let them get to know you a little bit, and they start to open up slowly from there.
How do guys earn your trust?
It’s direct. It’s direct in the meeting room, in the walk-through and on the practice field. I need to be able to trust a guy to throw him the ball. And I need to know he’s prepared. Because Mike [McCarthy] always said, and I believe it, the best players are the smartest players. And I am reminded of that when I go to a walk-through that involves a lot of young players. In order to get on the field with the first unit, you have to be a guy who studies and is pretty rock-solid with the offense. There’s going to be physical mistakes, there’s going to be drops, there’s going to be errant passes. But the mental mistakes are the ones that we just can’t have.
Did the loss of Jordy last year surprise you on how much it affected the offense?
No, it didn’t surprise me. I mean, you’re taking nearly 100 catches, 1,500 yards and 10-plus touchdowns just about every year out of the offense. We have specific packages for him, [and] we just didn’t have a guy who could fill those packages. And it was a lot of play-action stuff — where we’re taking eight-man protection and taking shots down the field, and we didn’t have a guy who could take that spot.
Is it that simple that you didn’t have Jordy?
It’s an excuse, but it’s the truth. The truth is we lost a stud receiver who put up incredible all-pro numbers one year, and he’s gone the next year without getting that production back. We knew you can’t replace a Jordy Nelson. But I thought that collectively we were going to be able to fill some of that void. But again, the stuff that he does is tough to teach, and that’s why he’s one of the best in the business.
I’m proud of the way that we battled, but we all didn’t play as well as we wanted to, and we didn’t get it done. I think when you start believing your own success too much, that can be an inhibitor of that energy flow. Because when it stops is when the focus goes on the individual instead of the team. So if you’re thinking about energy flow in a locker room, if there’s any end points, any people being too individualistic or selfish, that blocks the flow of energy. And I think that year, we just didn’t have the same type of group that approached it a little bit more unselfishly.
How do you view your career window?
I’d like to add a couple more championships to our team’s legacy, for sure. But every year is not a given. It never is in this league. But as a young player, you think, “Oh, I’m going to be around awhile.” Especially when you’re a first-round pick, you think they’re not going to get rid of you for at least a few years.
But when you’re a high-dollar player, it’s a business. And when you’re a quarterback, you wear so many different hats — being a leader and a spokesperson for the team, face of the franchise. And then obviously you’ve got to play really well on the field, because this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, and obviously there’s a lot of knee-jerk reactions you’re seeing with players and coaches moving on quickly based on production.
So you have to be consistent every year and not give them a reason to doubt your importance to the team. That’s why I’ve talked about the changes I made with my diet and my workout routines, because I’d like to play as long as possible.
