In his Wednesday-of-the-week-before-the-Super-Bowl media availability, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers faced right out of the gates the question of whether he absorbed a concussion when he took a helmet-to-helmet hit in the fourth quarter of the NFC title game.
“I didn’t have a concussion,” Rodgers said in comments distributed by the team. “I want to dispel that rumor. No concussion. I was fine. Yeah. Helmets are designed to prevent concussions, I think.”
He had us convinced until the last sentence, which sounded like something from Homer Simpson.
As we explained it on Tuesday, the stakes are too high for Rodgers to say anything other than “I did not suffer a concussion,” even if he did. And we’d do the same thing. Guys who talk about having concussions jeopardize their ability to play in games, and the last thing Rodgers will do at this point is jeopardize his ability to play.
Rodgers also chimed in on the story of the week. (And if you need us to identify the story of the week, maybe you’ve had a concussion.)
“I was real disappointed, to be honest with you,” Rodgers said regarding Jay Cutler and the criticism of his injury. “I’ve known Jay for a few years now and know what kind of competitor he is. I thought it was disrespectful, some of the stuff said about him.
“I admire his teammates. I saw Chris Harris’ interview on ESPN. I thought the questioning was ridiculous of him. But I appreciated the way he supported Jay, and Lovie has, and [Brian Urlacher’s] comments I thought were right on. To attack a guy’s toughness, when you’re not playing in the game especially, I thought was very inappropriate.”
There can be no attack on Rodgers’ toughness. The guy took a crash-test-dummy hit from Julius Peppers, and Rodgers got right up and seemed fine.
Even if he was acting fine in order to avoid possibly being told by doctors that he wasn’t fine, Rodgers kept going after a hit that would have put plenty of guys down for the count.