Aaron Rodgers disputed a report from Bleacher Report that insinuated issues between he and Mike McCarthy derailed the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers called the story a \"smear attack.\"
\"The thing is about the article, it\'s -- it\'s not a mystery. This was a smear attack by a writer looking to advance his career talking with mostly irrelevant, bitter players who all have an agenda, whether they\'re advancing their own careers or just trying to stir old stuff up,\" Rodgers said. \"What happens is the same tired media folks picking it up and talking about it. This just emphasized their opinion about me already. So it\'s ... the crazy thing is there\'s super-slanted opinions in that piece stated as facts, and then there\'s quote-unquote facts which are just outright lies.\"
Rodgers wanted to clear up the idea that the Packers are \"worried about me as the leader of the football team moving forward.\"
\"I want to say two things: One, if they knew that, why would they offer me a contract last year?\" Rodgers said during the interview with former Packers tackle Mark Tauscher and radio host Jason Wilde. \"And two, which goes into my second central thesis point that I\'m going to take down, is if I really disliked Mike so much, why would I re-sign knowing that if I play well and we do what we do around here -- we made the playoffs eight straight years, and then I got hurt and we missed the playoffs -- it\'s going to be me and Mike my entire career? So if I really disliked him that much, do you think I\'d re-sign? Is the money that important to me? I\'ll tell you it\'s not. Quality of life is important.\"
Rodgers said any issues with McCarthy didn\'t get in the way.
\"The beauty in our relationship was that it grew year after year, and we learned how to communicate with each other,\" Rodgers said. \"The beauty in our on-the-field relationship was that there was a ton of trust. When I read stuff like, \'I\'d disrespect him by changing all these plays,\' I had a lot of latitude. He knew that, and I knew that. I called the two-minute, I\'d call stretches of no-huddle offense. ... A lot of times, he\'d send two plays in: \'Hey, do you like this or that?\' That\'s what it grew.
\"The trust level was really high. I know it might make it tough on a playcaller when I\'m going in a no-huddle period or I\'m going in a two-minute of knowing exactly what\'s called, but that\'s the trust that we had, and that\'s why I appreciate getting to play for him for so many years.\"
