USA Today Sports
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers He met with reports on Wednesday. To his surprise, the dominant topic of conversation came from his public criticism of his unnamed teammates for making widespread mental errors in matches, an average of 20 percent. Rodgers wasn’t much surprised by his comments.
“People in this community have a hard time hearing the truth sometimes,” Rodgers once said during a 15-minute press conference in his locker.
Rodgers was asked if it was a good idea to direct his concerns to the public, when he could have done so in private.
“I did it privately,” Rodgers said. “I’m not saying anything [publicly] Don’t tell these guys. So, maybe this is talking about a conversation behind closed doors in public, but the level of accountability is the norm here. Again, I don’t think hearing criticism of any of these guys should be a problem. We all hear criticism in our own way, and we all have to come to terms with it, accept it, and process it. And if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. But if it fits, we have to wear it and improve on those particular things.
“I’m not going to be a bot here. I don’t understand why people have trouble with honest things. You know, I call things the way I see them. If people think I need to broadcast these things, that’s their opinion. But I do what I think is in the best interest of our guys, and I might I tried a lot of different things from a leadership standpoint this year. I was talking about my personal feelings about the situation. I didn’t call anyone by name.
“I think we all need to be on the lookout for the details. And that includes me. If I need to have additional conversations with these people, you know, with these people during the week, I’ll do that. And we did that to a point. But, you know, I I don’t put a person or two on the blast. I’m alerting everyone that this wasn’t good enough, and we all have to do a little better. You know, if one of these guys has a problem with that, I’m here. I like to have a conversation. I’m having fun By those conversations. You know? I enjoy any kind of conflict like that, because I know the solution on the other side will make us better unity, better friendship, and better cohesion on the field. But no one came to me and said, “I have a problem with what you said.” I think That everyone knows died [LaFleur] Including, that everything has to take a little bit of improvement, and get a little better.”
Rodgers was asked at one point if he was thinking about certain players when he said some of them should be sued for persistent mental errors.
“Not necessarily,” Rodgers said. “I think it’s just, you know, we have to have our top 11 players on the field. . . . We can’t have the same double number, fifteen plus mental errors and expect to move the ball efficiently.”
In general, Rodgers believes that his teammates should have thicker skin.
“We should all be able to handle criticism,” Rodgers said. “This is the nature of our work. Everything we do is under scrutiny, from myself to the young players. Getting used to dealing with that in a positive way is important whether it’s from you, from me or from me. [coach] Matt LaFleur. We need to be able to coexist, all of us.”
So what does it take to eliminate errors?
“Time,” Rodgers said. “You know, we have a schedule. We are creatures of habit. But when we leave this place, we must make sure that we do the right thing when we are home. Some of this is watching the movie. Some of this is studying the plan. Some of this is studying ourselves.” But we have to make sure we’re ready to go every day we step into the building.”
There is a clear root cause for concern. Rodgers believes that players do not go beyond the bare minimum in order to improve themselves. It’s an ironic remark, given that Rodgers has done the bare minimum over the past two seasons. Maybe if he had attended off-season training and/or gathered his teammates to throw sessions at break time, they wouldn’t be making mental mistakes now.