Friday Whispers – ‘The butthole in Green Bay died’

He changed a lot of hearts and minds . . .

Talking about Aaron Rodgers on “Hard Knocks.”

“You gotta watch ‘Hard Knocks,’ former NFL defensive tackle Warren Sapp said to reporter Jason Whitlock. “This is an Aaron Rodgers we’ve never seen before. The butthole in Green Bay died, they buried him or something.”

I didn’t watch “Hard Knocks,” but from what I heard Rodgers was charming on the show, mentoring young players, coaching players from the sideline, attending bonding sessions with teammates and so forth.

A far cry from diva image that some in the media portrayed.

Remember this story from early in 2022, when long-time NFL writer Hub Arkush said he wouldn’t vote for the QB for MVP.

“I don’t think you can be the biggest jerk in the league and punish your team, and your organization and your fan base the way he did and be the Most Valuable Player,” Arkush said on 670 The Score.

Arkush later apologized.

I’ve known Hub for a long time. I used to do freelance writing for his magazine, “Pro Football Weekly.” He’s not a bad guy, but he went a little too far with those comments, and he knows it.

The only reason I’m revisiting Hub’s comments is to illustrate how some viewed Rodgers over the years.

I don’t know Rodgers, aside from being in his press conferences the last few months, so I’m not going to sit here and evaluate what kind of guy he is.

However, Rodgers on “Hard Knocks” is a departure from the image many people had of him.

Once again, I don’t know him, so I can’t sit here and say, “Yes, he looked like he changed.” It’s not like you can see that a friend or family member, you are around all the time, has changed.

But he certainly changed his public image on “Hard Knocks.” There is no doubt about it. I can’t tell you how many people I know, not in football, but just sports fans, and not even Jets fans said how much they like Rodgers after watching “Hard Knocks.”

Former NFL QB Brett Favre was on the same panel with Sapp on Whitlock’s show, and said about Rodgers changing his image on “Hard Knocks:”

“Maybe that was strategically the plan,” Favre said.

I want to make it clear that Favre didn’t say this in a derisive fashion. By all accounts, Favre and Rodgers have a good relationship. He kind of said that matter factly. There was no edge to him.

So this begs the question – Did Rodgers, an extremely bright man, use that wildly possible, highly-viewed show, to help reshape his public image?

We will never know, because there is no way he will admit that, but certainly worked out that way.

But you know what, whether Rodgers is a different man or not, his teammates seem to love him, and are buying into what he’s selling.

And that is huge.

It doesn’t matter whether Sapp is right, or Arkush was right. It’s irrelevant.

His teammates are the only ones that matter.

They love him as a person, and and probably as a player even more, since he can help transform the Jets franchise, and help them break a 12-year playoff drought.

September 8, 2023

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