It’s predictable at this point, and it’s unfortunately not going to go away until Aaron Rodgers, Matt LaFleur, and the Green Bay Packers start winning some games.
NFL media loves a good story line, especially when they can spin it to be controversial. And true or not, Green Bay has been full of them this off season. From the fired Mike McCarthy getting massages during team meetings, to Rodgers not being able to chug a beer, to LaFleur’s foot injury possibly (somehow) hurting the team.
It’s been a long off season in Green Bay, which is to be expected when a franchise fires a Super Bowl winning head coach and then hires a 39-year-old with no head coaching experience – let alone head coaching experience with a quarterback as prolific as No. 12.
Still, the talking heads across the sports nation are doing simply just that: talking. They’re making up controversy where there’s nothing really there.
In a way, that’s expected, and it likely doesn’t even phase anyone within 1265 Lombardi Ave. That doesn’t make the “coverage”, a term we’re using lightly here, any less out-of-touch, though.
The National Sports Media is Creating a Fake Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur Controversy
For the uninitiated, this all started after the Packers joint practices with the Houston Texans. They were reportedly chippy, and Rodgers was pretty clear when talking to media actually at the camp that he’s not a fan of the concept.
“I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it for another 14 years,” Aaron Rodgers said via Tom Silverstein when asked his thoughts on how the joint practices were going. He harped a bit on how he didn’t think doing live special teams drills was smart, and in general Rodgers didn’t seem to like the concept of playing things close to the vest – much like a preseason game – as to not tip anything off to another NFL team. This is time to practice the offense, after all.
Those aren’t controversial statements. Not in the slightest. Where this manufactured controversy came from was in comparing Rodgers’ thoughts on the matter to LaFleur’s, who is all about joint practices. In fact, he expressed that he “100 percent” wants to do a joint practice again.
And that’s it, folks. That’s all the controversy.
We’re talking about two adults having differing opinions on a topic that allows multiple opinions to be had. LaFleur and Rodgers weren’t even asked about the other’s thoughts. Instead, some in the media have taken both of their separate thoughts and turned them into some kind of duel of philosophy – one that “clearly” shows a rift between Rodgers and his new head coach.
Foolish At Best – Negligent At Worst
The relationship between Rodgers and LaFleur is, of course, vital to the Packers success, but taking every little quote, movement, smile, nod, or frown from one or the other and turning it into a national headline is foolish at best – negligent at worst.
And yet, we’ve been graced with headlines like this from Mike Florio, who believes that “Aaron Rodgers’ criticism of joint practices amounts to criticism of Matt LaFleur.”
That headline alone isn’t based in any sort of reality, but then Florio goes as far as thinking up a scenario where ultimately, the Packers and Rodgers part ways because of his attitude.
“Rodgers continues to be the most powerful employee in the organization, and he’s showing everyone who wears the championship belt. They’ll let him gloat for now. The moment he shows real signs of slippage, however, the Packers will cut the cord and Rodgers will be playing for another team — just like his predecessor in Green Bay.”
It makes sense that one day Rodgers and the Packers could eventually part ways. As Florio suggested in perhaps his only coherent point, the Packers did trade Brett Favre at one point.
So yes, that’s a possible scenario. But to bring up that speculative and currently made-up scenario while nothing else negative about the relationship between LaFleur and Rodgers (other than another fake controversy about audibles) has even been uttered in Green Bay is simply click-bait journalism at its worst.
A Controversy With No Real Context
Worst of all this is all also completely out of context.
What Florio and others don’t tell you is that the Rodgers’ frustration had nothing to do with LaFleur. Instead, he was frustrated that the Packers offense couldn’t spread it wings with the Texans in town. Again, here’s Rodgers per Silverstein:
“I think before the Texans came, we had some really good practices,” Rodgers said. ”I think we were very efficient, we ran the ball well, we were getting into more of our miscellaneous plays and schemes, kind of installs 6, 7 and 8, and felt good about the work that we did.”
Rodgers actually doubled down on that thought, saying that he was frustrated because running LaFleur’s offense is fun, and he couldn’t do that much against the Texans:
“Just this minor frustration is when you do so many fun, schematic stuff for eight or nine days and then it gets kind of cut back for a couple days,” he said. “But we’ll be on next week, probably playing, and looking forward to just practices.”
The context of Rodgers’ quotes proves that this has nothing to do with a rift between him and his head coach. In actuality, it’s frustration from the signal-caller because he enjoys playing in LaFleur’s scheme and can’t wait to get back to practicing and installing that scheme.
That’s the very opposite of a controversy.
In fact, it sounds a lot like harmony in Green Bay for the first time in quite some time on the offensives side of the ball.
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