Jordan’s Serial: Praise for Rodgers as Jennings Ponders all things Minnesota
He has of course been there and done it, but when you gain praise from firstly an NFL legend, then indirectly from a current star player, you know you’re doing things right. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, was MVP of Super Bowl XLV when he guided his team past the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although he hasn’t been back to the big game yet, he continues to impress every year and coming into this season, it should be no different.
In an interview over the weekend for the Chicago Sun-Times Hall of Fame winning head coach for the 1985 Chicago Bears, Mike Ditka said that Rodgers would be the quarterback that he would most like to have played with. The former tight end, “I like what he does, and I like his leadership qualities. And I think that’s the other thing you have to look at. He has to be the guy in charge. And the team has to know it.”
“Iron” Mike knows a thing or two about great quarterbacks, playing in an era that had several but he also said that Rodgers would be the one QB that he would have enjoyed working with most, “How could I say that I wouldn’t want to coach [Johnny] Unitas or Bart Starr? There’s been so many great ones,” Ditka said. “But if I had to coach one guy in my career, maybe it’d be Aaron Rodgers.”
High praise indeed then, from a man famous for not pulling any punches and saying it how it is.
To back this up we have an ex-Packer talking about his new team and how we should give his new playcaller a break. Greg Jennings has come out in defence of his new Vikings teammate Christian Ponder. “Tell me this, right now: Brett Favre, receivers around him. Aaron Rodgers, receivers around him. Christian Ponder … receivers around him.” Jennings has had the luxury of catching passes thrown from two real greats of the game. He was talking to ESPN via the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and says that Ponder has always played under stress and pressure, “He really didn’t have the help around him to take that load off, outside of ‘All Day’ (Adrian Peterson). That’s it,”
Jennings of course has his and his new team’s best intentions at heart, showing that he has Ponder’s back already as we approach training camp, he also knows that if Ponder can get anywhere near to his former quarterback he will have landed on his feet in Minnesota. Ponder will be the first to admit that being mentioned in the same breath as Rodgers is beyond flattering right now. Rodgers has the upper hand in all categories, not just over his Vikings rival but over the vast majority of active quarterbacks.
The hefty praise heaped on Aaron Rodgers will not alter his perspective and goals, but even the most modest of players like having their ego stroked, and this will have done him no harm whatsoever.
