Aaron Rodgers came into the season as the media whipping boy in the NFL but he has been firmly supplanted by Urban Meyer. While the Green Bay Packers quarterback has let his play show that he’s not going to fit into his narratives, the Jacksonville Jaguars coach is making every mistake in the book regarding his.
Rodgers made his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday and he was asked, indirectly, to discuss some thoughts on Meyer. Specifically, McAfee asked Rodgers about how coaching in college is different than the NFL.
How vastly different is coaching in the NFL compared to College??
"In College you call your coaches Coach & in the NFL you call them by their name.. that might seem like a small detail to some but it's not to those of us who played" ~@AaronRodgers12#PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/VpBNZeytfO
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 5, 2021
“One of the biggest differences is, in college, you call your coaches ‘coach.’ In the NFL, you call them by their name. Now that might seem like a small detail to some, but it’s not to those of us who played. And the understanding is, there’s not a fear.
“There’s a fear in college that this person controls my ability to move on and play this game professionally. In an instant, I can go from a first-round pick to an afterthought, and this person could trash me to any team calling. So there is a healthy fear.
“I never had that with coach [Jeff] Tedford. I called him coach but I had a ton of respect for him…He treated us like men. And there wasn’t this weird ‘I’m your superior’ authoritarian deal… It was very direct and relatable stuff.
“But in the NFL, it’s Matt [LaFleur] and it’s Nathanial [Hackett] and it’s Luke [Getsy]. And it’s, you know, some guys go by their last name… It’s not coach this-and-that. And it’s not disrespect. It’s just we are professionals. We are both getting paid professionally to do this. I’m getting paid and you’re getting paid and we’re both gonna respect each other and respect the roles, you’re coaching and I’m playing. But there’s a level of respect that’s earned in the league and it’s earned through communication and honesty and work ethic and discipline and that’s not given freely.
“In college, I gotta respect and fear my coach because he could make one sweep of his hand and I’m outta here. NFL, it’s like, nah, you can’t do that.”
Again, Rodgers wasn’t talking about Urban Meyer, but he was definitely talking about Urban Meyer if you know what I mean.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.