The apparent feud between Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy was deeper than originally thought. The Green Bay Packers needed to make a change with the tension building and they decided to fire McCarthy last season.
According to Tyler Dunne, a source told him that Rodgers didn't think McCarthy had a “high football IQ.” Here's the exact quote from the article.
“Mike has a low football IQ, and that used to always bother Aaron,” this source says. “He'd say Mike has one of the lowest IQs, if not the lowest IQ, of any coach he's ever had.”
The article then states that a personnel guy from the Packers said: “He's (as in Rodgers) not going to respect you if he thinks he's smarter than you.”
The craziest part about the fallout within the organization is that Green Bay somehow managed to win a Super Bowl while all of this was happening. Apparently, Rodgers held a grudge against McCarthy once he was named the head coach.
McCarthy was the offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers back in 2005. That was the year that Alex Smith and Rodgers were both entering the draft as top quarterback prospects.
Article Continues BelowOf course, the 49ers decided to go with Smith with the first overall pick, making Rodgers wait in the draft room. The longtime Packers quarterback was drafted with the 24th pick and would make everyone regret their decision afterward.
McCarthy was quoted before he became the Packers head coach that Smith was the better quarterback available. Then, McCarthy found himself being the head coach of the quarterback he passed on in the 2005 NFL Draft.
Talk about awkward. The beef between Rodgers and McCarthy got to a point where they could no longer coexist together. Therefore, the Packers sided with their talented quarterback.
We will likely continue to see and read stories that were going on during the McCarthy/Rodgers era. At the least, Packers fans got a Super Bowl out of it, but there was more going on than we were led to believe.