Dave’s Football Blog

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is putting on the bravest face in the NFL this side of… well, anyone who walks into the Cleveland Browns’ E coli-laden training room, really.

The atmosphere at Packers camp might be even more poisonous. The fans have rejected him outright. Children in #4 jerseys are swearing at him. Every mistake that Rodgers makes will be scrutinized to no end. If he gets the Packers to the NFC Championship game and throws a crucial interception in overtime, well, gee, that’s so much worse than when Brett Favre did the exact same thing last January, isn’t it?

Rodgers, however, has taken the high road here. He just wants a chance to lead this team and show everyone what he can do. The problem, however, is that nobody cares. You’ll see more Packers fans showing up at Lambeau wearing New York Jets jerseys — what, you think it was just New Yorkers that bought them all? — than ever before.

But what if Rodgers had decided he wanted no part of this? What if, when Brett Favre’s plane landed, Rodgers had packed up his bag, walked out of camp and turned to the camera crew following him out — assuming there was one available — and said something like this:

“You know what? I’m not putting up with this shabby crap. I’ve had enough of this team’s fans berating me and their kids throwing F-bombs at me and telling me I suck. They don’t support a team anymore. They support some dude. And that dude hasn’t even won a Super Bowl in what, 12 years? And he’s still some kind of god to them. These people are bigger freaks than Scientologists.

“Well you know what? I’m done with it. I say let those Scientologists have their Xenu. I’m calling my agent and demanding a trade. I’d rather play somewhere where I’m wanted than deal with these false idol worshippers for another minute.”

Of course, several media people would have told us all that this was the wrong move. Many probably would have compared him to Ryan Leaf. But you know what? Once that tirade had gotten loose on ESPN, at least three NFL teams would have called Ted Thompson within the hour to offer up a first round pick for Rodgers, and Packers fans probably would have stormed the Packers front office with pitchforks to ensure such a deal happened.

And it would have been so much more fun.

After all, those GMs know just as well as the rest of us — the man who follows The Man is doomed. Aaron Rodgers is the next Cliff Stoudt, the next Brian Griese, the next Jay Fielder. They’ll never accept him in Green Bay, because Packers fans don’t support a team anymore. They support some dude — a dude who hasn’t won a title in 12 years and has spent most of that time manipulating the media with his tired maybe-I’ll-retire schtick. Clearly, this has had a massively hypnotic effect on Packers fans, who would drink the Kool-Aid if their now-exiled leader told them to. We might have to rethink the basic rules for how to start a cult.