Sports Radio Interviews

Aaron Rodgers: “This Week is Just One of Sixteen”

When the Packers decided to move on from Brett Favre two years ago and turn things over to Aaron Rodgers, I think a number of Green Bay fans and a number of people around the NFL were skeptical.  I actually thought and still do think it was a great decision.  While I had no idea what Aaron Rodgers would do at the NFL level because he had limited experience, I didn’t think the Packers could ever move on as a franchise until they moved on from Brett Favre.  Despite how many records he will break, despite how much of an icon he is, despite how much he meant to Green Bay’s success, he was holding the franchise hostage.  Every year, the Packers organization had to wait for Favre to make his decision about whether or not he would come back to the NFL.  Instead of waiting again, they turned things over to Aaron Rodgers, they haven’t looked back since, and now it looks as if they have found their quarterback of the future.  It must be nice for the Packers to know that when their offseason rolls around next year, they year after or even they year after that, they don’t have to worry about the all-important quarterback position. 

All Rodgers did last year was throw for over 4,000 yards and all he’s done this year through six games is throw for 1,700 yards and 11 TDs. He is currently 6th in the NFL in yards passing and tied for 8th in the NFL in touchdown passes. Next up for the Packers and Aaron Rodgers is a second showdown against Brett Favre and the Vikings. The Vikings took the first meeting, but this time it’s in Lambeau and Rodgers and the Packers look to ruin Old Number 4’s return to Green Bay

Aaron Rodgers joined XX Sports Radio in San Diego to talk about this weekend’s game against the Vikings, the media coverage increasing for this game and how he handles it and what he took away from the loss earlier this season against Minnesota.

On dealing with the cold weather in Green Bay after being from California:

“I don’t think you ever really get used to it, you just get better at dealing with it.  Living in it, you never want to be outside.  It’s not like you’re outside working or you’re spending a lot of time outdoors when it’s zero or negative temperatures.  You’re just in it more, so you just get used to dealing with it.  Your tolerance for being in cold weather kind of increases too, but its kind of miserable for everybody involved when you’re on the field and its that cold.”

On the game this weekend:

We’re playing (pausing) Vikings?  Yeah, Vikings.  (Host: Just another game?)  It is.  It really is Darren.  There’s been increased media presence in our locker room and they’re talking about it more on TV and stuff, but it’s just another week.  It’s a big game for us, we’re one back in the loss column right now, but we got a good shot to play a good football team this week” 

On dealing with the added media attention:

“Well I think there’s gotta be a little bit of both.  You’ve gotta be aware of some of the questions that are going to be coming your way, but as much as possible, you want to just stick to your normal routine.  Our P.R. staff does a very good job of that, keeping us focused on the task at hand and it’s just another game.  One of sixteen.  After this game we’ll have finished our home and away with the Vikings and we’ll still have nine games left in the season.  This is a big game for us, but we realize its just one of six divisional games, all of which are very important.  And one of sixteen regular season games of which we want to win all of them.”

On what he takes away from loss against Minnesota earlier this season:

“I think we take out of it that you can’t turn the football over against a good team and expect to win.  We turned the ball over twice and had a long drive at the end of third quarter (that) stalled inside the five, so we took points off the board from ourselves.  You’re not gonna win games against good teams when you do that.  We gotta take care of the ball and score in the red zone.  If we do those two things, we’ll have a good chance to win on Sunday.” 

Listen to Aaron Rodgers on XX Sports Radio in San Diego with Darren Smith

Tags: Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Darren Smith, Green Bay Packers, Lambeau Field, Minnesota Vikings, NFC North, NFL, XX Sports Radio