On Tuesday, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made some comments about chronic player mistakes that necessarily pointed a finger at the guy responsible for the entire team, head coach Matt LaFleur.
On Wednesday, LaFleur was asked whether Rodgers’s remarks hurt LaFleur’s ability to communicate with his team.
“I think that, you know, we have to be truthful with one another, and sometimes the truth hurts,” LaFleur told reporters. “And it’s no different than when your kids make a mistake, right? You tell them about it. And you make sure that -- I don’t think he publicly called out individuals, I don’t believe. I didn’t sit there and listen to the whole thing. So I just think you have to get to the root of the truth. And that gives you an opportunity to learn and grow. And we can’t run away from that, ever. And no different than when we’re in those team meetings. You always call it how it is. And I don’t think anybody’s off limits, starting with myself.”
Lost in that response is the fact that Rodgers took the dirty laundry from the meeting room and told the world about it. Even though he called out no specific players, the message generally calls out the man responsible for the team.
LaFleur also was asked whether addressed Rodgers’s remarks with the team.
“We definitely addressed just accountability and how we’re all accountable to one another, and we need everybody, you know, doing everything the right way,” LaFleur said. “All the little things will add up to big things. And it’s how you prepare. It’s, shoot, it’s how you treat people in the building. It’s all of that. Everything we do matters.
“And so I think what he was trying to get across, and you guys can obviously talk to him about that, but is just everybody’s got to be on top of their game. And it starts with us as coaches, first and foremost. Making sure we’re on the details. Making sure that not only do we communicate the finer intricacies of whatever it is, the fundamentals, the plays, but putting our guys through those, so that when you get into a game situation, it’s not the first time they’ve ever seen it.
“So i think collectively everybody’s has to got to pick up their game. And we’re not doing a good enough job obviously as an entire football team.”
He’s right. The 3-4 record says it. But the question for now is whether it’s helpful for the quarterback to so bluntly share concerns that the players aren’t doing what they need to be doing, and whether they shouldn’t be playing because of it.
And whether the head coach shouldn’t be tolerating the status quo.
