It wasn’t too long after Green Bay’s 51-45 overtime playoff loss against Arizona. You probably hadn’t picked your jaw up off the floor yet. And on the radio, like clockwork, came this comment from a caller.
It’s Aaron Rodgers’ fault the Packers lost, said the fan, because he missed that touchdown pass in overtime. And another thing…
(Wait for it…)
“Brett Favre makes that pass.”
Dear God, when does it stop?
Obviously, not anytime soon.
Rodgers had just led one of the greatest comebacks in NFL playoff history. He set a Packers postseason record with 422 passing yards, threw four touchdown passes and ran for a fifth.
Not to mention that he’s the only NFL quarterback to ever pass for 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons. And, per Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, he’s got a better career per-game passing yards average than Payton freaking Manning (269.5 to 261.1).
Put simply, Rodgers is, by any reasonable measure, one of the 10 best active quarterbacks in the world. Plus, Rodgers is still getting better.
But you know what he isn’t? Brett Favre.
Of course, this isn’t exactly new. But for some people, it still hasn’t gotten old.
For a certain segment of Packers fandom – or, perhaps, former Packers fandom – the only thing that matters is Favre vs. the Packers. It’s a Civil War that ended two years ago, but plenty of folks are still fighting it, and they will continue to do so.
I’m just not sure how Rodgers got confused with being the enemy.
Here’s a guy who’s taken every possible step to do right by Packers fans. He’s the consummate professional. He’s embraced the community. His talent is obvious. He doesn’t blame others for his troubles and he owns up when he comes up short.
But some people can still watch a game in which Green Bay’s defense allowed six Arizona touchdowns on 531 yards and blame it all on Rodgers. Does the guy have a “kick me” sign tattooed on his back?
Look, maybe Favre does make that throw. Heck, maybe he even makes a couple more plays that Rodgers missed. The Vikings QB has certainly proven that he can still play.
Or maybe Rodgers made some plays that Favre couldn’t have made. Maybe Favre makes some mistakes that Rodgers didn’t make. He’s certainly done that once before. Or even a couple of times.
But my point to that rogue segment of Packers Nation isn’t to paint Favre in the same way they paint Rodgers. The point is that both are good, and nowhere is it written that you must hate one to love the other. So maybe if people stopped focusing on what the Packers no longer have, they might just appreciate what’s still there.
Because someday, Rodgers will make that extra throw. Someday, he’ll hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
And on that day, you’ll want to call a radio station to say, “I knew it all along.” And it’ll feel a whole lot better if you do it with a clean conscience.
Big Mac Is Back
Even if you’re completely sick of the baseball/steroids issue – and frankly, who isn’t – it’s worth watching Bob Costas’ interview with Mark McGwire, in which the fallen idol admits his steroid usage.
This is practically baseball’s version of Frost/Nixon. Costas pulls no punches, and even though McGwire dodges quite a few of them, it’s still compelling stuff.
I believe that McGwire, among all of the known or suspected performance enhancing druggies in baseball, is the one who most genuinely regrets his decision to use them. He’s clearly carried this burden for years, wanting to let it out, but keeping it locked inside because he feared the legal ramifications of an admission. And I think it says a lot that he reached out to the Maris family to apologize directly (don’t expect that phone call from Barry Bonds).
But I also believe that McGwire, like so many others, still doesn’t completely get it. There remains either a level of cognitive dissonance or a level of continued BS. Like in this exchange.
Bob Costas: “Could you have hit 70 home runs … could you have had a home run ratio greater than anything Babe Ruth did in his time … without using steroids?”
Mark McGwire: “Absolutely. I truly believe so.”
Then why, for the love of horsehide, didn’t he?
One of the favorite fallback arguments for the PED apologists – one now parroted by McGwire – is that the drugs didn’t help people play better. They didn’t help guys hit more homers or rack up more strikeouts. Because you don’t get those things from a bottle, but through skill and hand-eye coordination and God-given talent. McGwire repeatedly says how he’d been given a gift.
Fine. Then why do it? Why use a performance enhancing drug if it doesn’t enhance your performance? For the love of syringes and back acne?
McGwire, like so many others, says he didn’t take the drugs to get stronger, just to recover from a rash of injuries and stay healthy.
Fine. But isn’t staying healthier just another way of being stronger?
The apologists say that you can’t condemn the users because “everybody was doing it,” so how can you hold it against somebody for just trying to keep up with the pack? And McGwire says he wishes he didn’t play in the steroid era, the implication being that he’s tainted by the era, not by his actions.
But how celebrated would he have been if he didn’t follow the pack? How legendary would be the man who – as McGwire claims he could’ve done – set clean records in such a dirty era? Certainly more so than a Hall of Fame voting percentage in the 20s.
This is the eternal regret that a man like McGwire, a man who is so remorseful, will have as his constant shadow. He will always wonder what might have been.
And he will have plenty of company.
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