When the Green Bay Packers stunned everyone and drafted quarterback Jordan Love in the first round in 2020, starting QB Aaron Rodgers was not happy.
A headline in many stories at that time said it all: “Aaron Rodgers ‘pissed off’ after Packers draft Love.”
No one likes to see their likely replacement hired in a surprise move, and then comes the awkward situation of training that replacement. Of course, the inescapable irony is that Rodgers himself had once been that talented young QB drafted by Green Bay, much to the chagrin of a veteran quarterback.
Rodgers, a first-round pick in 2005, had a very strained relationship with longtime Packers quarterback and three-time NFL MVP Brett Favre before Favre left in 2008.
Packers reporter Peter Bukowski appeared on the Short and to the Point podcast this week to talk about those two very similar situations that resulted in vastly different outcomes
Bukowski, co-founder of The Leap and host of @LockedOnPackers and Locked on Sports Today, said that while that Favre-Rodgers relationship didn’t work back in the day, the Rodgers-Love combination did.
Rodgers’ attitude proved to be the deciding factor in both situations.
Host Jess Kleinschmidt asked Bukowski about how Rodgers’ personality affected both relationships.
“What I find so fascinating … (Brett Favre) was this fun-loving guy and, and you know, everyone’s favorite teammate, and just like one of the boys and it would have shocked me to find out that he was cold to a backup quarterback,” Bukowski said. “Doug Pederson (Packers backup QB from 1996-98 and 2001-04) for years was his best friend. Doug Pederson, not half as good as Brett Favre.
“The difference is, when Rodgers came in, Favre was mulling retirement and Favre took it really, really personally. … And also Aaron Rodgers, if you read the Gunslinger, which is a great book by Jeff Pearlman, Rodgers was a dick, like flat out was a dick to Brett Favre, saying things like calling him ‘grandpa’ and ‘old man’ and just like constantly poking the bear as it were. Then in practice going out and like — throwing no-look passes and he looks the part, too. He’s this swaggering guy and that’s just the opposite of how Brett Favre was so that was oil and water from the start.”
Flash forward 15 years from that rocky start. Bukowski noted that Rodgers and Favre have long since “mended that fence” and become friends. Rodgers has gone on to win a Super Bowl championship and four NFL MVP Awards.
And then the Packers drafted a quarterback, Love. He’s definitely not like Rodgers, Bukowski noted. Luckily, Rodgers was also not like Rodgers, or at least he’s matured from the cocky, 2005 era A-Rod that badgered Favre.
“Jordan Love is not that guy,” Bukowski said. “But Aaron Rodgers is prickly. We know that he’s a prickly guy and so he was pissed about the draft pick. But if you hear him tell it, he will say it was never about Jordan Love. It was just about what he represented, that the team was ready to get rid of me. I was mad at the team. It wasn’t Jordan Love’s fault.”
“We have this incredible compartmentalization between ‘the way I feel about how you arrived here and how I feel about you, the person.’ That seems impossible to me that he was able to do that. And yet if you ask Jordan Love, he will tell you Rodgers was his boy, still is his boy, and that they have a great relationship off the field.”
Bukowski said some people might wrongly read Rodgers’ behavior with Love.
“There is a cynical side of, you know, some people will tell you, oh, well, Rodgers cozied up to Love because he knew Love wasn’t as good as him and it didn’t matter,” Bukowski said. “And the reason that Favre hated Rodgers was Rodgers was better than Favre at that point in their careers. I don’t know if I buy that, frankly, and also Jordan Love is really good.
“People watched last year, the second half, especially, like, he was awesome. And if you listen to people around that organization and I’ve talked to players about it, you could see it in practice. Jordan Love was and is really, really talented.
“It is kind of remarkable, though, that their relationship remained intact given how pissed off Aaron Rodgers was that this all went down the way that it did.”
Rodgers, of course, went to the New York Jets in a trade last season, just as Favre’s next stop after Green Bay led to the Jets. Love, despite only one season as a regular starter, signed a massive four-year, $220 million contract extension in July.
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