For Aaron Rodgers, being behind Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre allowed him to develop and grow. The now New York Jets quarterback says that his time spent as the understudy to Favre helped him understand the game more fully.
In an interesting twist, Favre played the 2008 season with the Jets following a storied career with the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers is now in his second year with the Jets, following his own storied career in Green Bay.
And it was Rodgers who replaced Favre in Green Bay.
Asked this week by reporters at training camp about setting the standard within the Jets organization, Rodgers pointed to his time as a young player and being able to watch Favre on a daily basis.
“There’s people that set the standard, I mean, I got to play behind Brett (Favre). He’s a first ballot Hall-of-Famer and I got to see what the standard of excellence looked like every day,” Rodgers told reporters on Wednesday.
“There was never a drop-off in his energy, his enthusiasm, the way he practiced, the way he came, and even on days where, now I know what he probably felt like at times where you’re in the third day in a row of pads, you’re a little bit tired, bodies aching, you just had some squats the day before, and you’re trying to get the body moving and going, but you still got to bring it. I had some great coaches along the way too, starting in high school and junior college, and at Cal with coach [Jeff] Tedford, and as a young player with Tom Clements and Mike McCarthy, and Joe Philbin. Those guys always kind of held me to a standard when I was the scout team guy, they would pull me aside and have conversations with me about the future, and about leadership, and about body language, and a lot of different things that helped me along the way.”
In his one season with the Jets, Favre went 9-7 while having the eighth-best passing season in franchise history. He would retire following his time with the Jets, then come out of retirement to play two seasons for the Minnesota Vikings.
