Skip Bayless thinks he’s been right about Aaron Rodgers all along. Or at least since 2009. So let’s drift back 14 years, back when Barack Obama was in the White House, the Steelers won the Super Bowl and the Yankees were the best baseball team in the land.
Rodgers was in his second year as a starter at Green Bay. And he still was another season away from the Packers winning the Super Bowl. Within two years, the quarterback would win his first of four MVP trophies.
And it also proved to be the first time that Skip Bayless, or anyone else, described Aaron Rodgers as a “diva.”
Bayless, who in 2009 was part of the Cold Pizza sports show reminded his viewers this week as to how right he was. After watching Aaron Rodgers hour-long session on the Pat McAfee show, Skip Bayless took a victory lap.
“I first guessed this guy, 14 years ago,” Bayless said of Rodgers. “Two years before he won his long ago, far away Super Bowl. Back on the old show, on the old network, I said, ‘This guy, is a blame-deflecting, finger-pointing diva, with low leadership intangibles, who is a master media manipulator and who I believe comes up small when it really, really matters.’
Skip Bayless shared video of the show, tweeting that “yesterday, Aaron Bleepin Rodgers was vintage INSUFFERABLE!”
This Classic Skip Bayless Take on Aaron Rodgers Did Ring True
It definitely was one giant mess of a classic Bayless hot take. But there were certain elements of truth. Those are the best kind. Rodgers did do some finger pointing Wednesday as he explained why he decided to ditch Green Bay and head to the New York Jets.
Rodgers said he was 90 percent sure he was going to retire in late February as he headed to a much-publicized isolation retreat, But once he returned from four nights of darkness, he said he learned that Packer management was shopping him around to other NFL teams. So although he was almost certainly retired, Rodgers got mad at the Packers moving on without him.
Plus, Bayless also brought up Rodgers on-field performances in big games. The quarterback won his first NFC title game, then lost his next four. His MVP trophies are a cool, individual award, but football is a team sport.
Bayless talked about how he argued with his co-host (so what’s new) about his feelings in regard to Rodgers.
“And I had to fight with the guy on the old network and then the guy on the new network about what a transcendent thrower of the football he is,” Skip Bayless said of Aaron Rodgers. “And he is. I still think he has some of the most awful footwork in the history of the National Football League. But he can get away with it because of his arm talent,.
“But in the end, my side prevails. … He said so much wrong (Thursday) that we don’t have enough show for the two of us to break it down and tear it apart and skewer it all the way it should be skewered.”
Rodgers keeps needling ESPN reporter Adam Schefter. Who knows, he may add Bayless to the list.