According to Skip Bayless, Aaron Rodgers never took football seriously.
It’s hard to tell who’s had a worse second act: Skip Bayless post-Undisputed or Aaron Rodgers trying to revive his career with the New York Jets. But let’s entertain Bayless’ claim for a moment.
If five NFC Championship appearances, four NFL MVPs, and a Super Bowl title don’t count as taking football seriously, what does? Imagine Rodgers actually trying. His résumé already cements him among the greatest quarterbacks ever. Even his disastrous two-year stint with the Jets can’t erase that, though it might taint it — if it hasn’t already.`
Bayless’ gripe stems from Rodgers’ Netflix docuseries, Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, which, in his words, reveals Rodgers as a player who “never obsessed over football.” According to Bayless, Rodgers peaked after his 2010 Super Bowl win, content to coast while Tom Brady piled up rings.
“So, here’s my biggest revelation from watching Aaron Rodgers: Enigma on Netflix,” Bayless began. “An enigma is something mysterious, puzzling, difficult to understand, yet it is painfully obvious to me exactly what happened to Aaron Rodgers’ career; no enigma needed. He and his 2010 Packers came from nowhere with no expectations as the six seed, as a road Wild Card team, and what, wait a second, they won the Super Bowl? Yep, they did.
“And as Aaron says in the Netflix doc, that night after winning the Super Bowl, it hit him that winning it all didn’t really make him that happy. His reaction was, ‘Is this all there is?’ I think he was expecting Nirvana, Valhalla, Utopia, Heaven on Earth. And he got a trip back to Green Bay and a ring — that’s it. He also woke up the next day, and he realized that ‘Oh, no, everyone’s going to expect me to do this again and again and again.'”
For Bayless, that moment defined Rodgers’ career.
“This is all why Aaron Rodgers, as I said from the start, is the flip side of Tom Brady,” Bayless continued. “Brady won his first Super Bowl, and he could not wait to win his second and his third and his fourth and on and on and on, because Brady was still paying an extreme price to be in extreme shape and extremely prepared after he won his seventh Super Bowl in the 10 he played in. Just think about this: it’s been 15 years since Aaron Rodgers played in his one and only Super Bowl because he was never, ever obsessed with playing in his first Super Bowl.
“To Aaron Rodgers, football is just a game — a game that becomes pretty easily to him because he could always throw a football. To Brady, football was life; it was his reason for being. Dominating the National Football League was Tom’s Heaven on Earth. As you see in this doc, now, Aaron Rodgers constantly experiments to find what life is really all about, what makes him happy. He still hasn’t found what he’s looking for, as U2 once sang.”
Bayless particularly took issue with Rodgers going on South American excursions to “expand his mind” with Ayahuasca extermination. A known Ayahuasca enthusiast, as he’s often introduced on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers was seemingly being mocked by Bayless for seeking enlightenment in other places around the world from ordinary people, not athletes.
“I don’t believe Aaron Rodgers has ever been obsessed with staying in the greatest shape or with studying football or achieving gameplan enlightenment before his biggest playoff games,” the 73-year-old Bayless added. “No, that 2010 team went on the road and barely won at Philly, won big at Atlanta, and then finally won the NFC Championship game in Chicago, in large part because my guy Jay Cutler from Vanderbilt University was lost to a sprained ACL before halftime.
“Then, Troy Polamalu tried to play in the Super Bowl on a pulled hamstring — and he probably shouldn’t have been out there. And my guy Ryan Clark was on his last legs for those Pittsburgh Steelers. And, yep, it happened — Green Bay beat Pittsburgh, and Aaron Rodgers won Super Bowl MVP. That was his career crescendo. Since then, as I keep pointing out, Aaron Rodgers is 7-9 in the postseason and of those seven wins, six of them had big luck factors. Those nine losses include his last three pathetic losses — twice as the one seed in Green Bay at home…
“Aaron Rodgers has been pathetic in the postseason, of late, and nobody seems to notice, maybe, except me.
That’s one way to look at it. We could apply the same level of scrutiny to Tom Brady’s rings if Skip were interested. Dissecting every game to downplay someone’s legacy because you dislike the subject of a documentary is petty — and trust us, we get it. But trying to pick apart one of the greatest quarterback careers of all time just to prove a point?
It’s Bayless, yes, but that doesn’t make it any less misguided.
“[On the field], Aaron Rodgers became a finger-pointing, blame-deflecting choke artist,” he added. “That’s who the Jets traded for. That’s who the Jets paid. That’s who the Jets went out and got Davante Adams for. The Jets are 4-11. Aaron has plummeted to 23rd to QBR in the NFL; 23rd, just a tick above Kirk Cousins. I now wonder what the Jets decision makers thought when they watched Aaron Rodgers: Enigma on Netflix.”
And we wonder if Skip Bayless would sing a different tune if Aaron Rodgers’ Netflix docuseries had been framed as a tale of triumph instead of introspection and vulnerability.
Not that Rodgers deserves the benefit of the doubt, but when it comes to undermining him, there’s no need to tarnish his career accolades to make your point. His flaws are evident enough without rewriting history to diminish one of the most accomplished quarterbacks of his generation.