It seems unfair, doesn’t it? Over the last 25 years, the Green Bay Packers have had incredible stability at quarterback. While there were bumps in the road, the transfer of power between Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers was fairly peaceful and really successful.
Rodgers has spent the last 15 years terrorizing Bears fans. It hit an apex last October at Soldier Field. Rodgers turned in another virtuoso performance. He capped it off with a memorable touchdown scramble that sealed the game. He celebrated by screaming directly into the face of heartbroken Bears fans that he “still owns you,” but as Michael Scott brilliantly said on The Office: “Well, well, well, how the turntables …”
Point of order before I continue.
Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. If we use the metric of passer rating, he is the greatest regular-season quarterback who has ever lived. He’s the apotheosis of dual-threat quarterbacks in the NFL. The success he has had opens the door for a player like Justin Fields. Rodgers’ lone Super Bowl ring is on the backs of beating the Bears for the NFC Championship during the 2010 season. He has had 470 touchdowns, incredibly precise throws and has earned the nickname “Hail Mary G.O.A.T.” Rodgers is a menace. He was the player that you loved to hate. The walking, talking definition of begrudging respect.
Over the last couple of years, Rodgers has taken a “heel turn.” This seemingly smart and interesting guy has fallen victim to his own hubris, pseudoscience and ego stroking. While most of his Packers career has been Rodgers being a playful foil to the Bears and their fans, that relationship has changed. He’s been outed as a villain and can be treated as such.
When Rodgers would fall short in playoff runs, like he has in recent years, Bears fans could laugh at his relative failure. The rationale was that they were punching up at Rodgers — the best player in the division and the reigning, back-to-back MVP. Bears fans knew that in pure Ric Flair fashion, to be the man, you gotta beat the man, so all roads lead to and through Green Bay. If the Bears wanted any relevance in the NFL, they’d have to dethrone Rodgers — or he would have to go away. It didn’t matter which. As good as the Vikings have been this season, nobody is buying it. Rodgers is the gold-standard. He’s the dragon that must be slayed.
Well, the beast is wounded now. And I don’t just mean physically. Rodgers looks like a broken man. He has said he doesn’t regret the last couple of petulant offseasons, but he doth protest too much, me thinks. Pardon us if we chuckle.
Sure, things for the Bears right now aren’t great, but Fields has been a ray of sunshine in a dreary fall. For the first time in forever, Bears fans can look at their own quarterback and wonder if you had a choice going forward, which one would you want? Subsequently, the Packers’ inability to get out of their own way this season has been delicious. They’ve been a bumbling cluster of dearth and it’s hilarious. They’re only a game ahead of the Bears for last place. A Bears team that tore it all down to reboot in hopes of brighter days.
As the Packers have failed, Rodgers has been spending time putting the onus on his young receivers. He’s also thrown shade at Packers coach Matt LaFleur. I’m not shocked that his thumb is hurt. He clearly hasn’t been able to point it at himself.
If Rodgers plays on Sunday and Fields doesn’t, the Packers will win, but Green Bay isn’t going anywhere this season.
The debate on whether Rodgers or Jordan Love should play the rest of the season has already begun on a local and national level. All of it is great!
If that makes me petty, I’m cool with it. You can call me Tom Petty, Bob Petty or Petty LaBelle. In a year where joy for Bears fans has been limited and muted, let the schadenfreude commence.
You can hear Laurence Holmes talk Chicago sports Monday to Friday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on 670 The Score with Dan Bernstein.
