Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is one of the best in the business at drawing the defense offside with a hard count and taking advantage of the free play. It’s a tactic that every quarterback employs, but Rodgers has it down to a science.
You’d think Packers fans would love that (and most surely do), but one Packers fan thinks it’s poor sportsmanship. And so that fan wrote a letter to the editor that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed under the headline, “Packers’ hard counts are ruining the game.”
“I hope that this season the Packers can refrain from their unprofessional play-calling,” the letter from Richard Klatt of Big Bend, Wisconsin, began. “It strikes me almost childish. What I call the ‘stutter-count’ is so out of place in professional football.
“It’s third down and the Packers need 5 yards, so instead of digging in what does quarterback Aaron Rogers [sic] do? He does his hard or stutter count and gets an opponent to jump offside. And there is your first down. Wow, how great was that? Or better yet Rogers [sic] notices an opposing defensive player trying to get off the field and does a quick snap. Another 5 yards! Great play-calling!
“Come on Packers, I think you’re above this kind of play. Are you? Can you get those 5 yards without the tricks? You’re ruining the game of football. Are our young athletes to be coached to play the game this way? I for one hope not, but then again, they’re only kids.”
Rodgers saw the letter and took to Twitter, writing, “I read some dumb things on here from time to time but wow, Dick Klatt from Big Bend.” Rodgers included a GIF featuring the line from The Hangover, “You are literally too stupid to insult.”
Perhaps next time the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel receives a letter that stupid, the letter should go into the circular file, and not the pages of the newspaper.