Aaron Rodgers promises no Brett Favre-like drama with new Packers QB Jordan Love
The similarities were hard to miss.
The Green Bay Packers drafted Jordan Love late in the first round of this year’s draft, presumably to eventually replace Aaron Rodgers. The Packers years ago picked Rodgers as Brett Favre’s replacement.
Favre and Rodgers had a chilly relationship, in part because Favre felt it wasn’t his job to mentor Rodgers. Rodgers told Bleacher Report that part of the history won’t be repeating itself.
Aaron Rodgers wants to be known as a good teammate
Favre and Rodgers are on good terms now. Favre even called up Rodgers to talk about the Love pick when it happened, Rodgers told Bleacher Report.
"He didn't offer any advice, not really," Rodgers said, according to Bleacher Report. "It's more of an understanding of how beautiful life can be when it repeats itself in interesting ways. It's hard to ignore the age similarity of how old I was coming in with him, and with J. Love now joining our squad."
Rodgers expressed that he wasn’t too happy with the Love pick, and that’s understandable. The Packers are coming off a trip to the NFC championship game, and instead of taking a receiver in one of the deepest drafts ever at the position, the Packers took a quarterback who probably won’t play this season if everything goes well.
That doesn’t mean Rodgers will give Love the cold shoulder. It’s not Love’s fault.
"Part of your legacy," Rodgers told Bleacher Report, "is how you treat your teammates. I want Jordan to have as great of memories as possible of me being in the QB room and having some great laughs and competing. I want kinship, not animosity. That's what I've always tried to do with all my backups."
Rodgers’ time with Green Bay might be running out
Likely because of the Favre-Rodgers storyline, or perhaps going back to Joe Montana and Steve Young, every veteran quarterback is asked how he plans to treat a young backup drafted to replace him.
Favre might have gotten some heat for being honest about not wanting to mentor Rodgers, but it’s a reasonable approach. It isn’t a veteran’s job to help someone take their job. No NFL quarterback wants to be replaced, for reasons that go beyond the multi-million contracts at stake. If a quarterback is doing everything he can to get himself ready to play at his top level, he has done his job.
Yet, it’s also fine to be a good teammate and a mentor, as Rodgers said he will be. It probably makes for a friendlier meeting room. Rodgers seems aware that time is running out for him as Green Bay’s quarterback. Making the most of that time seems to include not freezing out his eventual replacement.
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