It’s going to be cold when the Baltimore Ravens meet the Bills, and the Ravens should see a different team from the one they hammered. But if the Ravens lose, no worries, Aaron Rodgers defended Lamar Jackson — and Josh Allen — in an NSFW Super Bowl rant.
Let’s put this in perspective. Rodgers is about Rodgers. So when he’s “defending” Jackson, he’s also defending himself for failing to get back to the big game despite multiple MVP seasons. Rodgers doesn’t like his detractors, but this can easily be looked at as his sly — not — way of pumping himself up while pretending to care about someone else’s career.
Rodgers dipped his toes into the waters of a rant on the Pat McAfee Show.
“Big problem in football media is, what is going to happen to the loser of that game?” Rodgers said.
Does Ravens QB Lamar Jackson care what Aaron Rodgers says?
Rodgers said both players got the job done during the regular season. Maybe Rodgers’ question should have been: What does the regular season matter? Football is a postseason game, Aaron.
Rodgers’ postseason record? A somewhat pedestrian 11-10. That’s the second-worst winning percentage (.524) of any quarterback — ranking in the top 10 for all-time postseason wins — behind Payton Manning’s .519 mark.
But it’s apparently not Rodgers’ fault. Nope. It’s the media.
“Both (Ravens' Jackson and Allen) had incredible seasons,” Rodgers said. “Until the media, which has a big sway jumped on the Lamar train — which (expletive) I don’t blame them because he had an incredible season too. But it seemed like it was Josh’s MVP to win. He had a phenomenal season. Arguably the best player in the league. And the other guy that would probably be in the conversation besides Saquon is Lamar Jackson. Just a little ho-hum 41 (TD passes) and four (interceptions) for him.
“But they both haven’t won or been to the Super Bowl, which is everybody's measuring stick for giving somebody some sort of elite status that we have to grovel to receive from the media.”
Rodgers has to grovel to the media? Didn't the media anoint Rodgers as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time? Is it the media’s fault that Rodgers couldn’t get it done in the postseason?
The postseason rules the roost in the NFL. It always will. Dan Marino went 8-10 in the postseason. He will never be mentioned in the same breath as Patrick Mahomes, who currently sports a 15-3 mark. The regular season is all about numbers. Think about all of the times Rodgers threw a short touchdown pass when the team could have used a run to score. It made his numbers look great, but perhaps it didn’t prepare his team for the postseason?
Jackson and Allen will settle the issue on the field. The winner will get his deserved props while the loser will deal with tough questions about not being able to get over the top. That’s why the NFL pays big money to quarterbacks.