Those who have followed Kalyn Kahler know the NFL writer at The Athletic is an exceptional journalist who has a tendency to find unexplored angles, use them to gain pretty revealing insights and explain to fans the games within the game.
Last week she delivered another eye-opening piece when she wrote about Aaron Rodgers’ hands. Specifically, all the weird things he does with them before the snap.
The crux of the story got into why so many rookie wideouts for the Packers seem to struggle playing with Rodgers. Many of the quarterback’s current and former teammates had tons to say on the topic because it’s an aspect of Rodgers’ game that can be overlooked despite how crucial it is to Green Bay’s success. On Sundays it’s a “blink-and-you-miss-it” reaction from Rodgers when he’s reading a defense at the line of scrimmage.
Kahler’s piece wasn’t even really a takedown of Rodgers. It was more an examination of his style and the expectations he has on offense—which, in turn leads to him generally being more successful with veteran receivers than rookies.
Rodgers may not have read the piece—and apparently Pat McAfee didn’t, either—because when the QB made his weekly Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show he absolutely went off on the story as if it accused him of committing a felony.
It was bizarre. Mostly because Rodgers tried to act like Kahler made up an issue when, in fact, 11 of his teammates went on the record to talk about their struggles learning Rodgers’ cues early in their careers.
Also bizarre was McAfee claiming the article used anonymous sources, but we can chalk that up to him doing bare minimum research here while trying to get a comment from Rodgers.
McAfee has since admitted he was wrong. Don’t let his late correction distract you from how weirdly defensive Rodgers got about the whole thing.
Warning: NSFW language is used in the video below
Hey Kalyn.
Thanks for watching. I, too, was surprised with some of the descriptors of your work. “Exaggerated nothingness” was a new one for me.
I said “I believe” … I believed wrong apparently.
I will address on today’s show.
Keep up the good fight.
🗣🗣🤙🏼🤙🏼
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 21, 2022
This wasn’t just an overreaction. This was Rodgers calling the story dumb and irrelevant, which can easily be interpreted as him saying his teammates should just keep their mouthes shut and their thoughts to themselves.
So, hey, let’s take a look at some of the things they had to say about Rodgers’ hand signals in Kahler’s story:
The signals are not written down anywhere. They are not searchable on the team-issued iPads and there’s no handy film cut-up to watch them all in one go. “It’s just in our brains,” [Jordan] Love said. The veterans pass them down in the oral tradition, but the rookies have to ask for help or try to pick them up on their own during the live-action of practice and games.
“We don’t teach them because players get released every day or traded, so we don’t want anybody giving out A-Rod’s signals,” Kylin Hill said.
….
“What’s so crazy is all the coaches don’t even know all of them,” [former receiver Chris] Blair said. “It’s really a thing that you really have to learn from watching (Rodgers) in practice or asking one of the vets.” Blair said that when watching film in Green Bay, coaches would sometimes think a receiver ran the wrong route. “But we would be able to show them like, no, Aaron showed us the signal!”
…
“That’s definitely something wide receivers don’t look forward to, is the signal meeting, because we have so many,” said backup quarterback Jordan Love. “You don’t want any of that stuff getting out, so we wait until the season starts to start going through signals.”
…
“I wouldn’t say a better learning environment,” [former wideout Equanimeous] St. Brown said. “Regardless if it was the way it was for 15 years or 10 years before I got there, I’m going to learn it and do it the way he wants to. … I still gotta be on the same page as my QB.”
…
“I don’t have a say-so of anything, and I think that should be expected based on the majority of rookies,” [Romeo] Doubs said. “Whatever (Rodgers) has to say is whatever he has to say, but I know it will always be a W in the end.”
None of these comments come off as an attack on Rodgers. If anything, it’s an appreciation for the style he has developed—a style that’s led to four MVP awards, 10 Pro Bowl selections, an NFL record passer-rating in 2011 and a Super Bowl victory in 2010.
From a betting perspective: it’s honestly pretty useful to learn about why younger pass catchers struggle in Green Bay.
What’s more annoying about the entire response from Rodgers is that he could’ve taken a moment to expand on what was written and give his side of things. Here’s how a rational person could’ve responded:
“Thanks for bringing that up, Pat. Yes, I have super high standards for my receivers and I don’t have time to teach them everything they need to know. We have a great culture here where veterans are involved in the development of younger players and it’s one of the reasons we stay so successful.”
Or:
“You know, Pat, I was made aware of that article. I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it. We have a system in Green Bay that’s worked for the nearly two decades I’ve been here and I think we’ll stick with it.”
Boom. Done. No teammates thrown under the bus, no one’s journalistic integrity questioned. Fans get to learn a little bit more about the inner-workings of the Packers and the players who spoke can feel like they were heard.
Instead, Rodgers made a scene, created even more headlines like the one on this post and turned a well-informed article by Kahler into another locker room distraction for a 6-8 team that looks likely to miss the playoffs.
This isn’t to say Rodgers has to like everything everyone says or writes about him, just that he needs to pick his battles a bit better. Or, at the very least, read more than the headline before going scorched Earth and making yourself look more like a fool.
