Aaron Rodgers still betting on himself as ‘reigning two-time MVP’
Aaron Rodgers decided to remind the football world exactly who he was on Tuesday.
His Packers are in the midst of one of their worst seasons with him at the helm, and while A-Rod has previously been critical of the young offensive skill players around him, he’s done little in the form of self-examination to account for their woes. At least that is, in the public eye.
Rodgers continued that trend this week, telling “The Pat McAfee Show” that he would continue to bet on himself despite Green Bay’s struggles.
“I always believe in myself first, and I bet on myself first to go out there and to impact the game and to be great,” he said. “I still know that I have that within me. I’m still the reigning, defending, two-time MVP. Regardless who’s out there with me, guys want to come battle, they know where to find me. I’ll be in the center of that huddle, expecting greatness, trying to inspire the best I can and lay it out on the line.”
The comments didn’t particularly carry a team-centric nature, and for “Undisputed” cohost Shannon Sharpe, that was a big problem.
“Where was that guy on Sunday?” he asked Wednesday. “Those guys in that huddle that were looking for that guy, that were expecting greatness, where was that guy at? … The Packers are averaging 17 points a game. That’s the fewest since 1992, Brett Favre’s first season. The Lions held the two-time reigning MVP to nine points.
” … The two-time reigning MVP got three victories. … If it doesn’t matter … what everyone else does, why the hell you only got three wins? They got the next three games: Cowboys, Titans and Eagles. That doesn’t look pretty. … I’m going to check back in in three weeks and see what the two-time reigning MVP’s record is.”
Skip Bayless believed the comments were a form of self-motivation for a huge Sunday matchup against Dallas.
“This guy is put together very differently than any quarterback ever,” Bayless assessed. “I’ve been on him from the start: all-time finger-pointing, blame deflector, master media manipulator. … He’s transcendent [as a thrower of the football], but as a leader, he’s the opposite of transcendent. He’s transparent is what he is, because he’s a fraud as a leader.
“Yet, I get where he’s coming from. I think he’s looking at Sunday’s opponent as the one opponent in the league he has owned psychologically and performance-wise. … He’s 2-0 in the postseason against my Dallas Cowboys, and he’s 7-2 overall. … He has annihilated and humiliated us, and I think he’s speaking from a position of strength just because he knows that opponent is coming back. … I do respect and fear him because he owns the Cowboys.”
Aaron Rodgers: ‘I’m still the reigning, defending two-time MVP’
Skip Bayless reacts to Aaron Rodgers’ MVP comments.
Bayless though, was just as critical of Rodgers’ postseason résumé.
“But when you say, ‘I’m still the reigning, defending two-time reigning MVP’, where did that get you in the postseason?” he asked. “Because all-time in the postseason, the transcendent thrower of the football is now 11-10 overall. Since that long ago, far away Super Bowl run … he’s 7-9 in the postseason. … And as you well know, the last two years he was the No. 1 seed in the conference, and lost games at home … And he stunk up both games. … He invalidated the MVP both times.”
Green Bay meets Dallas in a highly-anticipated clash Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET on FOX.
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