The Packers’ selection of Aaron Rodgers in 2005 wasn’t greeted warmly in the quarterbacks room. Brett Favre, then the 35-year-old starter, once famously said: “My contract doesn’t say I have to get Aaron Rodgers ready to play. Now hopefully he watches me and gets something from that.”
Rodgers spent three years behind Favre and obviously learned something, having won three MVP awards and a Super Bowl MVP.
All of that to say, Rodgers has been where Jordan Love is, and Rodgers appears to have taken his heir apparent under his wing, having been where Jordan Love is.
Love spent this offseason preparing as if he was going to start, with Rodgers’ future with the Packers in doubt as he skipped the team’s offseason program.
Rodgers said he tried to put himself in Love’s shoes.
“And then I just reached out; I reached out a number of times [to] check on him [and] see how he’s doing,” Rodgers said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “I didn’t hold things from him. I let him know where I was at mentally and what I was thinking about, and hopefully he appreciated that.
“I just felt that’s what I would want in that situation, just to hear from the guy. And also, there’s a love and an appreciation and a friendship there, just like it was with me and Brett. So I wanted to make sure I checked in with him and let him know I was thinking about him.”
Rodgers repeatedly has said his grievances with the Packers is nothing personal against Love, who had no say in the Packers’ selection of him in the first round of the 2020 draft.
“I have a lot of respect and love for Jordan, and I understand it’s got to be tough what he went through,” Rodgers said. “I went through it for two years in the offseason, going in ’06 and ’07, I was the guy the entire offseason, going through quarterback school, going through most of the OTAs, taking all the reps, and then here comes Favrey coming back -- and obviously I’m back on the bench. Thankfully I went through that, and I can understand a little bit about what he’s going through, so I just try to keep that in mind the entire time.”