Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has made it clear he runs the plays he wants, when he wants.
Rodgers told Pat McAfee on his show on Tuesday that he has pretended to have issues with the speaker in his helmet “a ton of times.” The point? The trick allows Rodgers, 36, to call whatever plays he wants, completely ignoring coaches’ calls.
“Do you ever call off or wave off any calls coming in from the sidelines in your helmet?” teammate A.J. Hawk asked him. “Or, another move I know defensive guys have used in the past, you could say your speaker cut out so you can call what you want. Have you ever done that?”
Rodgers laughed. “I’ve done that a ton of times. I have done that a fair amount. Every now and then, it’s real.”
He said his helmet went out three times last year; one additional time, he was just messing with head coach Matt LaFleur. Rodgers added that he’s had to use the backup helmet four times in two years, laughing as he recalled the memories.
As funny as Rodgers found that incident, LaFleur was not laughing. “He’s had some choice words for some of the helmet people,” Rodgers said.
He adds that sometimes making on-the-fly decisions can be the best bet. “Sometimes that does happen, you gotta kinda make up a play,” Rodgers said. “You want to kinda go rogue, you can pull something out of your -ss if you think it’s gonna work.”
The Green Bay Packers quarterback is enjoying a bit of a resurgence after some murmurs that his stardom was fading. He helped lead the Packers to a 37-30 win over the New Orleans Saints Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
