“I will never bet against him when he’s like that. He’s playing at a level where he can compensate for the shortcomings defensively, the almost nonexistence of a running game. He can compensate and put them into a position to win a Super Bowl.”
“I knew what I was doing,” Aaron Rodgers said about the bold prediction he made after the Packers’ Week 11 loss to the Redskins. “I was hoping to take some of the pressure off of some of the guys and put it on myself.”
“The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” is a business book. It’s about the problems teams face as they try to “row together.” Rodgers calls it a “phenomenal read for anybody in a leadership position.”
“One [part] that especially talked to me about this team,” Rodgers said, “was communication and conflict and being comfortable having issues with teammates and resolving them and moving forward in a positive way and not having that fear of conflict, which I think alienates and isolates individuals. Being comfortable talking to people and letting them talk to you about issues they have and being constructive and positive in your reaction to that.”
Rodgers did something similar to “run the table” two years ago, after Green Bay started 1-2 and the town was in a panic. He went on his then-weekly radio show, “Tuesdays with Aaron,” and spelled out the word, “R-E-L-A-X.” The Packers won 11 of their next 13 games, earned a first-round bye and beat Dallas in the divisional round before losing at Seattle in the NFC Championship Game.
“I don’t think it gets recognized, the leadership and type of teammate he is,” McCarthy said. “If there’s ever a period of time that exemplifies it, it’s right now.”