By Tim Rohr
Okay, here's a real aside from what you'll usually find on JW. But I need a break from all the drama. So a little NFL commentary.
I'm actually an expert. Sort of.
In the 1960's I was such a football weirdo I could name a football player with a number from 1 through 99. And I was hardly in 8th grade.
I have no idea why I was passionate about football. I was too small and weak to make it on any school team, but that didn't stop me from breaking teeth and collarbones on Sunday afternoons playing tackle football - sans any protective gear - at the local school "football field" where I played with and against many neighborhood friends.
While I was small and weak, I had an uncanny ability to stay on my feet after being hit and hit and hit. It's something in me that I would later understand as a hatred to lose. It was a weird thing.
For whatever reason, as a boy, I had a very low self-image. But on those Sunday afternoon sandlot football games - at Jones Middle School - I assuaged that low self-image in sheer blood-letting. And I bled a lot: broken teeth, bones, and so much blood running from my nose that no one wanted to tackle me.
As a small aside. A few years ago I took the train - which didn't exist when I was a kid - from Downtown LA to my mother's home in what has become known as the Inland Empire. The train passed through my old hometown of Baldwin Park and right next to Jones School and across Merced Avenue.
Sure enough, that "football field" is still there and the eucalyptus tree we used as a goal line is also still there. My mind raced back decades. But the train was faster and it passed from view in an instant.
Well, all that is to preface what I want to say about Aaron Rodgers - and his season-ending injury. So here goes.
First. Rodgers isn't Brady - Tom Brady
Brady isn't the greatest quarterback ever because he passed for more yards, threw more touchdowns, had the best passer-rating, or whatever, Brady is the greatest because - are you ready for this:
BECAUSE HE WAS SMART ENOUGH NOT TO GET HURT.
I don't know how he didn't get hurt or why, but Tom Brady, SEVEN-TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION, found a way to never get hurt. Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and many other greats DID NOT.
Second, Brady kept his cool. Rodgers didn't
I don't recall the year, but Brady didn't do so well and the Patriots - like just about every other team with an aging - but otherwise beloved star - decided to move on. And so they did.
Brady, after being the Patriots' darling for two decades and leading the previously bottom-feeding team to an unprecedented SIX SUPER BOWL VICTORIES, was cast off as an aging liability where he was picked up by the equally lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Being a "cast-off" is probably what revitalized Brady and he immediately led the Bucs to a Super Bowl victory, only their second in franchise history - and the SEVENTH for Brady - while the Patriots crashed to their worst season in 20 years.
Back to Rodgers
Meanwhile, as a similarly loved and decorated star for the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers grew bitter after the last couple of disappointing seasons and started "blaming."
Seeing all this, Aaron Rodgers probably had Brady dreams. So he sought to cast himself off to none other than the New York Jets, which hadn't won a Super Bowl - nor achieved much of anything since the Joe Namath voodoo thing in 1969.
Apparently the Joe Namath voodoo thing is still operative. In his first season with the Jets, Rodgers went down during the first game on the fourth play and it's over.
Rodgers is 39. I hope the best for him. But Rodgers isn't Brady. Brady was smart enough not to get hurt.
I'm nearly 30 years older than Rodgers. And I'm smart enough not to get hurt. You can too.
Meanwhile, that dude that filled in for Brady, Zach whoever, did a pretty damn good job. Jets won. Just let this dude play and stop looking for 39 year olds. Seriously. LOL.
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