What happened in Green Bay | Bleacher's report

There had to be a break point. An incident, an argument, a loss, a moment that has condemned the football wedding of Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy.

Everyone could see the quarterback and head coach of the Packers heading for a divorce well before this inconceivable 20-17 year old defeat against the modest Cardinals in December, the one that had ultimately sacked McCarthy. Rodgers' death and challenge had been constant for years.

But where does one go to find the beginning of the end?

Was it the third week of the 2017 season, when the cameras surprised Rodgers barking: "Stupid f-king call! to his coach?

Or again, return to the NFC championship game on January 18, 2015, when McCarthy led the coach with a ferocity of laziness, claiming goals on the field at the 1-meter line twice in the first period, then running three once in a row with five minutes left to enrage his QB and effectively euthanize a Super Bowl season?

Or even earlier, until 2013, when Rodgers and McCarthy appeared to be about to launch hay factors amid a defeat in Cincinnati?

Those who have observed this relationship from the beginning say that you must continue.

Back to the honeymoon period. Although the Packers were 15-1 in 2011, Rodgers was the most valuable player in the league. Even when they won their last Super Bowl title, in the 2010 season, with Rodgers as MVP of the Super Bowl. Even then, Rodgers was already angry with his coach.

So keep going. Until the moment these two people were reunited. At the beginning of 2006.

The least well kept secret at 1265 Lombardi Avenue was that Rodgers seemed to hate his coach as soon as McCarthy was hired.

No one has a grudge in any sport like Rodgers. As for Rodgers, grudges do not go away cheerfully. They stick. They grow. They are refueling.

No, Rodgers will not forget that McCarthy helped perpetuate his four-and-a-half hour wait in the NFL's green room the year before. His embarrassment televised nationwide. McCarthy, then offensive coordinator of the 49ers, chose Alex Smith No. 1 in the overall standings. Not Rodgers.

No, Rodgers would not take that as a funny accident. That is what ensured that the two would never really hear each other.

"Aaron has always had a chip on his shoulder with Mike," said Ryan Grant, the Packers' departure from 2007 to 2012. "The guy who ended up becoming your coach dropped when he had the opportunity. Aaron was unhappy that Mike had forwarded it – because Mike had actually verbally stated that Alex Smith was a better quarterback. "

Another long-time teammate agrees: "It was a big cancer in the locker room, it was no secret."

During all the winning seasons, it would have been easy for casual observers to neglect this cancer. Confuse success with happiness and harmony and assume that life was good between the two.

But even in the best of times – when confetti should have remained stuck to their clothes – a person close to Rodgers remembers that he would regularly call to say that McCarthy had no idea what was going on. ;it was. He would tell him that McCarthy often called the wrong piece. That he used the wrong staff. That they ran coins that worked once out of 50 in practice. This McCarthy was a buffoon who he was constantly saving.

"Mike has a low IQ football, and it always bothered Aaron," said the source. "He would say that Mike has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, IQs of all the coaches he's ever had."

Adds a staff member who was working for the Packers at the time: "He will not respect you if he thinks he's smarter than you."

And as time passed and the team stabilized, the facade collapsed. The cracks in the foundation of this arranged marriage have become impossible to ignore.

"You start arguing, you start to lose, when the money is bad, you argue," said DuJuan Harris, a Packers who fought back from 2012 to 2014. "You start to hate how someone breathe in. You start hating how someone chews his food. "

So, poof, it's over.

Leaving behind what legacy? It's not as if the Packers were epic failures of the last decade. McCarthy has a street that bears his name in the shadow of Lambeau Field. Rodgers is a future Hall of Famer of the first round. Both played in the playoffs together for eight consecutive years. But that should have been a reign similar to that of the patriots. L & # 39; history. A former teammate says he thinks Rodgers should have won a minimum of six Super Bowl rings under McCarthy and that the 2011 team should remember the 1972 Dolphins.

Instead, an infallible dynasty has never been.

Instead, Rodgers hopes to go back to 35 years, McCarthy is unemployed and everyone asks himself a question: What happened?

Bleacher Report met dozens of players, coaches and staff who spent time in Green Bay with Rodgers and McCarthy looking for an answer.

Almost all agree that rings are missing in the Packers football era. Many rings. And of course, there is a blame to spread. Some cite former general manager Ted Thompson who literally fell asleep at the end of his tenure. Some cite the innate ability of the defense to self-destruct each month of January.

But the two packers that lasted the longest are at the center of everything.

McCarthy and Rodgers.

While Jermichael Finley, a tight member of the Packers from 2008 to 2013, sees a quarterback and a bad leader in autonomy, Grant thinks it's silly to complain about such a transcendent talent. Where Greg Jennings, a Packers receiver from 2006 to 2012, sees Rodgers as a source of extremely sensitive toxicity, others criticize McCarthy for wasting a gift from the gods of football.

An ex-Packers scout puts him on both. He describes Rodgers as an arrogant quarterback ready to blame everyone except himself – a "who is not as smart as he thinks" – kindly notes that McCarthy has virtually left his team.

Nobody knows where Rodgers and the Packers are going. How long will this upcoming marriage take with new head coach Matt LaFleur?

But a former teammate, lamenting this colossal "And if", clearly explains the past.

"If you were to write a title," he says, "it would be there: How the egos slaughtered the packers."

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At its height, the Rodgers-McCarthy Packers offense bore a sense of absolute certainty.

Coaches try to create opponents and players laugh inside. "We would literally say, 'They can not stop us,'" says Grant.

There was no doubt.

The rooms were simple and worked like clockwork. McCarthy has identified and planned the game to resolve endless inconsistencies. The defenses could not double the Jennings team. Linebackers could not keep Finley. Jordy Nelson was in an unbreakable mental state with Rodgers on the back of the shoulder. James Jones manhandled the corners. Randall Cobb added to the embarrassment of wealth. And playing against Rodgers was like playing against the Golden State Warriors – a death sentence.

For Rodgers, the icing on the cake was the ever-increasing freedom to switch from game to scrimmage and a growing propensity in the middle of the game to wait, wait, wait for something bigger to grow downstream.

McCarthy could live with that, of course. The Packers were winning. So much of.

Yet as Green Bay's talent drained, this freedom became a problem.

Think of the endless debate of humanity on artificial intelligence, Grant says. "When you place a quarterback in a position and you talk about his brain state, you give him the opportunity to make changes, guess what? … You develop the AI ​​because it has the ability to run without And then when it works without you, it's like, 'Wait a minute!' But in the same breath, if you're not able to stay ahead, that's will distract you and tell you: "It's me who makes the decision, it's the best decision."

And so, Grant adds, "You live and you die of his greatness."

The problem for McCarthy was that as the talent ran out, he failed to innovate. His stratagem became obsolete and he did not adapt himself. As one staff member says, McCarthy "had his own dose of juice". He thought that his system, and not the Packers absurd talent, was the basis of offensive success. But raw recruits can not compete head-to-head, like Jennings, Nelson or Jones.

The tension with Rodgers about the call to play has become an integral part of the DNA of the offense itself. Rodgers felt the system was bland and therefore played more and more at Superman.

Many believe that Rodgers, the QB with the highest career passer-by score (103.1) in the history of the NFL, was 100% justified in ignoring his coach's decisions and that the Packers would have deteriorated more quickly he had not put this cape on. The personnel manager stated that the Packers' passing offensive was essentially "Get open" and that they had been on the same routes for seven consecutive years, to the point that the rivals of the division have "constantly" called the grounds before they left.

No wonder the oblique road, once so deadly, went out.

Where were the route combinations? Movement? The wrong direction? "It's like, 'Dude, you have to adapt! The league changes!", Says the personnel manager. "You must be humble enough to follow him, if you can not adapt, you will die, he certainly has not adapted, you can not cover yourself 90% I do not care who you are things have become obsolete. "

Rodgers had no choice but to take control and every year he took more.

This ridiculous throw to Jared Cook in the playoffs in 2017? In the caucus. Rodgers asked an uncovered guard to retreat with him, that he would bite into a defender and rush left. "It's your problem," said a former Packers coach. "A guy who's going to do that, he could screw up a room Mike called … [but] you must also recognize him good. "

This disconnection led to tensions. A system that seemed so unstoppable was made bland, archaic. The games degenerated into bizarre disputes over who could call the best game, and Rodgers, harboring grudges, felt more and more capable of outdoing himself despite McCarthy, the man who had dared to think that Alex Smith was better than him.

McCarthy, on the other hand, seemed to be more and more controlled, leading many to sympathize with Rodgers.

The view was strange at first.

About once a week, a meeting would begin and McCarthy was MIA. The players did not know where he was, for example, an assistant coach would take care of the final preparation of the team on the Saturday before a game. Finally, we learn that McCarthy, who calls the day of the match, was being massaged in his office during these meetings.

One player had the same massage therapist and she hinted that McCarthy would slide her into the staircase leading to her office while the rest of the team was preparing for the opponent of the week.

"It was then that the guys were asking: what is it? "Everyone was like," Really? Wow. "

Rodgers in particular was not thrilled.

Not that there was no logic to everything. Over the years, McCarthy has been trying to take a more CEO-like approach with the team. He systematically refused external interviews for assistants if they were under contract. So it was his way of giving them more responsibility, to prepare them for a possible promotion elsewhere. Previous numbers are common to all football coaches. And while McCarthy probably did not get a massage every time he let a wizard organize a meeting, the optics were bad. In retreating, he seemed distant and lost the respect of the players.

"If you are not part of the meetings and you are trying to be furious with the execution, no one will really respect you," said a former staff member at the reception. McCarthy-Rodgers era. "They'll look at you like, 'Where were you all week?' It looked like he was really chilling."

Put yourself in Rodgers' place, instead of a player who eats, sleeps, breathes. As some sources say, "How do you think it felt?" Of course, he would take control.

Rodgers may not be a cloakroom presence similar to Tom Brady, but for a former offensive teammate he is still "by far the best quarterback in terms of NFL history skills." ". And it was incumbent on McCarthy to manage that, to show leadership and make his shift's life as simple as possible. Do everything in your power to let this talent shine.

"His # 1 job, and Mike has always missed that point, is to handle Aaron," said the former teammate. "It's your driver – it's your engine." Aaron is your driving force for the entire team, whether you want it or not, you need to make sure that guy is happy. does not sound like a fun job – if he is happy, you win.

"Your job is not about going out and throwing and grabbing passes – your job is to manage people."

And if Rodgers is not Brady as a leader, McCarthy has never managed to fend for himself like Bill Belichick. While Belichick scorned the limelight and "retired" in every possible way, this player said that McCarthy liked to anoint himself as a quarterback guru. The coach is often boasted to players of his stint with Joe Montana … in Kansas City.

"He tried to pretend to be this quarterback," said the player. "It was like, 'Buddy, I just want you to know that Joe Montana has done a lot more before being in Kansas City."

McCarthy felt that he was the one who created this monster of an offense. A staff member adds, "It was McCarthy's big mistake, he wanted to be the guy, he wanted to be the reason, and he was not so good."

It did not help that McCarthy also allowed his assistants to change jobs every year. He wanted them to gain experience, but as Grant points out, this did not necessarily help the players. Many times they had the impression of knowing more about their position than their own coach.

Many agree that McCarthy could have saved himself had he swallowed his pride and engaged a keen and offensive spirit to challenge Rodgers. Alex Van Pelt, coach of the halfbacks in 2012 and 2013, before moving to the watchkeeping quarters in 2014, however, hinted at a ray of hope. However, sources in the team say that McCarthy felt threatened by Van Pelt, who became close to Rodgers. The Packers chose not to retain Van Pelt after the expiry of his contract after the 2017 season, which displeased Rodgers.

Which cut that grudge more deeply.

And the rest of the team? Opinions were divided on McCarthy.

Some have interpreted his laissez-faire style differently. It was refreshing. Substitutes like Jayrone Elliott ("I have only respect for him") to beginners like Grant ("Mike is a great coach, I'm surprised he's not a coach at the moment"), they describe it again and again as the player's coach. But even a defensive starter who begins a conversation by praising McCarthy soon acknowledges that the culture he has instilled has created a flexible team.

When Thompson hired McCarthy, he called him "Pittsburgh macho". And yet, the coach rarely matched his bullless rhetoric to press conferences with a bull-free action. A staff member calls it "a fake badass". McCarthy has rarely imposed fines, benchmarked or sent messages to players and paid the price almost every season – never as much as in the game, the moment that will define it in the eyes of many Packers fans . Several sources in the team believe that McCarthy should have cut out unmatched backup support, Brandon Bostick, several months before the NFC title match in 2015. Instead, he was on the ground for an attempt to kick him late Seahawks, and instead of blocking his man, he tried the catch. The ball bounced off his helmet and Green Bay collapsed.

The Packers also rarely hit the training camp, which angered the defensive players "every day" in the face of McCarthy's lack of interest. The former starter never attended their exercises, and it was still the case. defense sprinting from the field offensive side for team exercises.

"What the guys did to the defense mattered little," he says. "It's an offensive team, and our quarterback should bail us in. As advocates, we always talked about it, it's like," We screwed their buttocks to camp today. Will they finally run towards us? ? Respect us? & # 39; "

The answer was a resounding "No", and this player said that the result was a "mild state of mind" that was constantly rising.

When Rodgers missed seven games in 2013 and nine games in 2017, the player remembers that his teammates had squandered.

"It's at that time that real coaching, true identity, real character come from everyone," he says. "I saw that guys were giving up when we did not have a star quarter, I see that guys are not going to give everything when they have their back against the wall."

Even when they built a 19-7 lead in the NFC title game in 2015, even though they bruised and bloodied the NFL's most physical team for 56 minutes, that's not enough. was only a matter of time before their inner sweetness was unveiled. McCarthy gave in, the defense broke, and it was not by accident.

"This Seahawks game has defined our team here," he said. "We had no finisher."

Moments after the 28-22 loss, Rodgers showed his frustrations. He criticized the lack of aggressiveness of the team. But it did not explode directly to McCarthy, which one interviewee saw. Quiet tension has defined this relationship. A player who has heard of McCarthy's massages even wonders aloud if Rodgers started this rumor and tried to broadcast it to anyone who would listen to it. Neither Rodgers nor McCarthy could be contacted to comment on this story, but no one spoke to B / R to recall a scornful and exaggerated confrontation between the two when such a calculation was needed.

If Rodgers has a problem, he rarely chooses to solve it directly.

One person, who was close to the quarterback but has since been separated from his life, describes Rodgers as forever "opposed to the conflict". As passive-aggressive to the extreme. As a person who prefers to poke his problems deep down and pretend there is no problem rather than communicating these issues and building relationships like this with his coach.

Rodgers generally preferred mid-match crises to constructive conversations.

"I guarantee you that he has never, maybe once or twice, but most of all never addressed those issues with Mike," said this person. "Which means that all he's done is to fest and poison it."

So fester, he did it. And fester. And fester.

So, no, McCarthy is not the only one to blame.

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It was in 2012 and the Packers welcomed the 49ers when, at half-time, cornerback Carlos Rogers asked Jennings, in a funny way, why he was doing so many short routes.

"You know what's going on," Jennings told him. "Year of the contract."

It is then that Rodgers intervenes to say, according to Jennings: "You should have it by the end of the year."

Come again?

Jennings returned to the crowd without a voice.

"I do not think he realizes what he said and the impact it has had," Jennings said. "If the shoe had been on the other foot and I told him," Hey dude, I should come play with your quarterback, "he would have been offended by that, but when it came out of his mouth – and we all know that there is a truth behind the jokes – for it to say that and act as if everything was the same? This was just not the case. "

The next day, Jennings told his trainer, Edgar Bennett, that he knew it was his last year in Green Bay. "It was my free space," he admits.

He was Rodgers' No. 1 receiver for four consecutive seasons, totaling 4,619 yards and 34 touchdowns in 2008-11. He was at the receiving end of the famous Rodgers Super Bowl Needle Thread. He had opened his family's door to Rodgers for Thanksgiving, as he wished, because he knew his quarterback was alone in a new city.

And now, Rodgers did not want him? Jennings felt betrayed.

This season has skirted. The Packers misdiagnosed Jennings' sports hernia as an injury to the groin. When he came into agency, Rodgers made no effort to convince him to stay. No calls. No texts. Not a conversation. Goodbye.

Before bombarding his Twitter account with blasphemy, understand that Jennings is self-conscious. He acknowledges that there will be steam coming out of the ears of Packers fans. Any ex-Packer who does anything but rent Rodgers is quickly ashamed en masse. He understands that. But Jennings insists that he just says the truth – and in this case, the truth "provokes".

It's not the only one either.

Maybe Rodgers' ability to throw a football on a chord from every angle on every Sunday would hide McCarthy's flaws. But a faction of people who have spent time around Rodgers and Packers think you have to look beyond statistics and highlight and understand that Rodgers is also responsible for the Packers' fall to mediocrity.

Then they list the reasons why.

He has a right of self.

By the time Rodgers signed his new contract, which could bring him up to $ 180 million, Finley realized that a storm was brewing. Because Finley, Rodgers' No. 1 for four and a half years, remembers the right his QB had even at the beginning of his first year of career "when he was broke like f – k.

"You gave $ 200 million to a man," says Finley. "He's the GM He's the organizer He's the quarterback And he's the head coach He already has the feeling that he has the right, and then you give him 200 million "You make it one of the best paid in history.It comes with the territory, man.I think Rodgers, man to man, needs a little more reproach."

He will throw you into the niche.

A former Packers recruiter said Rodgers could be brutally tough on young players. Sometimes it is necessary. Other times? Not really.

Scout points Jeff Janis, a seventh round of the 2014 season at size (6 "3," 220 pounds) and at the rare speed (4.42 out of 40), which quickly became a fan favorite – and Rodgers' favorite to alert the scout, even though he also did not attach much importance to Janis as a player.

"Janis went into the niche very quickly and he never let it out," he says. "He did not even give the kid a chance, and the hard part is that Janis is a good person." And they used to dog him. Other people did what Aaron did. They had the habit dog Janis. "

What does this niche look like? Easy. Rodgers can not do any harm. "It does not go wrong – it's always the fault of the receiver."

He is too sensitive.

This word comes up all the time when you talk about Rodgers. Where to start? "Sensitive is sensitive," starts Jennings. You hear what you want to hear. Perceive what you want to perceive. Nothing else matters.

By way of illustration, he points to his own broken relationship with the quarterback because he is convinced that he has done everything possible to fix it – while Rodgers has not punctuated it, "he punctuated," by an effort of imagination ".

Covering a Packers game as a member of the media, Jennings attempted to attract Rodgers' attention, but the quarterback refused to recognize him. Jennings spoke to McCarthy. He talked to the trainers. He spoke to everyone to set up a man-to-man discussion without cameras, and never heard of it again. Not that he was surprised.

It's the same quarterback who reprimanded him for daring to speak to Brett Favre while Favre was Viking. Jennings still remembers that Rodgers, furious, told him after the 2009 match, "Why do you have to do that?" as he accused Jennings of taking sides.

"I can not have a relationship with him because you have a problem with him?" Jennings says. "It's mean-spirited! It's not who I am."

So, there was Jennings, a Viking himself in 2013. He could say that the packers' recipients were afraid to say hello to Rodgers, who was probably over-analyzing each of their movements from afar. For him, it's sad. It should not be like that. He sees Brady's relationship with Julian Edelman, with all his recipients, and says, "Everybody wants it." These two spend time together off the field, and that affects what's on the ground. Brady builds bonds for life, which can make the difference between division titles and Super Bowls.

Between Brady's legacy and Rodgers' legacy.

Meanwhile, Jennings 'once-strong friendships with Nelson and Randall Cobb, two of Rodgers' closest allies, have fizzled out. There is no chance in hell that the "Perfect Pack" group posing on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2011 would do it again.

In Rodgers' world, as an old friend once said, "when you came out, you came out". He eliminates everything he perceives as negative. Famous, that meant suddenly cutting his family and close friends in 2014. He made a comment in December on the celebration of his birthday with his "friends", but sources close to the family say it's up to wrong that many have let believe that they have reconciled. They did not do it and those who were cut off still do not understand why.

"I do not know how someone changes completely," says one of them. "This whole flop – for no reason – I can not even understand how someone does that."

Some of the Packers wonder if this lack of family affects Rodgers, if keeping a grudge has a negative effect on his psyche. A former Packers staff member describes him as someone who "is really in his feelings", who "is not sensitive enough – he is real sensitive. "There are bad guys in the NFL," he says, "and Rodgers is not one of them. different, he says. Not like Brady, nor ultra-used with victories. Just different. "

It's as if Rodgers could not hear millions of people calling him a traveling Hall of Fame.

As if Rodgers was still the kid with spiky hair in free fall on the day of the current of air.

Every negative press note, any suspicion of a teammate, a coach or any other coach, "bothered him thoroughly," said this source, "it hurts him … C & # 39 is like, "Dude. You are Aaron Rodgers. Relax. Les gens essaient de vous couronner comme le plus grand de tous les temps, et vous n'avez gagné qu'un seul Super Bowl. C'est tellement ancré dans son esprit que tout le monde est contre moi… qu'il ne peut tout simplement pas s'en remettre. "

La puce sur l'épaule de Rodgers était toujours plus un rocher, de la division I que je propose aux 49ers de McCarthy, choisissant Smith pour le remplacer par ses propres fans qui l'ont hué pendant la "Family Night" lorsque Brett Favre a tenté de revenir. En vieillissant, Rodgers avait besoin d'une nouvelle source de carburant, qui devint son propre entraîneur.

De manière tordue, cette attitude est aussi un cadeau de Rodgers. Faire chier ses coéquipiers. Défiant son entraîneur. Des ponts brûlants pour la vie. Ceux-ci peuvent tous être des effets secondaires gênants pour l'assassin que vous voyez le dimanche.

Grant rejette tout ce que ses anciens coéquipiers disent: «Mec, sors d'ici», car pour lui, la puce n'est pas une mauvaise chose.

L'hostilité est aussi une arme.

"Avec Aaron, sa puce sur son épaule et sa sensibilité sont en fait ce qui le rend formidable", a déclaré Grant. "Cela fait partie de ce qui le motive et de ce qu'il est. Alors tu ne peux pas le frapper. Ce n'est pas parce que tu aimes dans une direction que tu vas aimer dans toutes les directions."

Un autre membre de longue date du front-office des Packers est d'accord, affirmant que toute frustration ressentie par Rodgers vis-à-vis de Janis, vis-à-vis de quiconque, est probablement due au fait que ce joueur ne fonctionne pas comme Rodgers. Pensez à la Jordanie, à Kobe, à n'importe quelle légende. Ils sont tous exigeants au point que leurs coéquipiers les méprisent. Demandez aux coéquipiers de Magic Johnson ce qu’ils ont pensé de lui, a déclaré la source. "Ils disaient: 'Ce mec était un con!"

Avec superstardom vient la réalisation que tous les yeux sont sur vous pour livrer.

Jordan l'a embrassé. Kobe aussi.

C'est là que Jennings et Finley voient une différence frappante chez Rodgers. Il n'est pas responsable. "Ce n'est pas un chef né de manière naturelle", déclare Finley.

Maintenant, la pression sur Rodgers augmente comme jamais auparavant, ajoute Jennings, "qu'il le veuille ou non."

"Pas tellement avec son jeu, parce que nous savons que son jeu est sans pareil", a déclaré Jennings. "Mais comment peut-il entretenir des relations et coexister avec un entraîneur principal, un call-play, qui va mettre plus de moyens à sa disposition pour apporter des améliorations à l'équipe? Pas tant pour l'amélioration de vous-même, statistiquement, avec tous vos chiffres. Vous allez recevoir vos honneurs. Mais maintenant, nous allons vous demander de supprimer votre ego. "

Finley ajoute: "A-Rod veut le sien. Il veut manger. Il se soucie de ses cours, de ses finitions. Il va avoir du mal. … C'est comme un toxicomane. Vous dites à un toxicomane de changer ses habitudes Je pense que ça va être très dur. Je pensais qu’il serait capable de s’en sortir, mais vous donnez plus d’argent à un gars, plus d’attitude, plus de diva -ness … "

Sa voix se tait.

Rien n'a changé. McCarthy ne pouvait rien y faire et peut-être que personne ne le pouvait.

Pas que McCarthy n'ait pas essayé.

Selon des sources, McCarthy a accueilli Rodgers chez lui et lui a même recommandé de prendre le téléphone pour appeler sa mère. Mais Rodgers n'était pas un fan des récits de McCarthy – il préférait s'en tenir aux X et aux O. Et sur le conseil de la famille, Rodgers a dit à McCarthy avec tant de mots de se mêler de ses affaires. McCarthy a demandé davantage à Rodgers "en tant qu'homme", dit un ancien ami, "et Aaron ne voulait pas l'entendre. Il ne veut pas qu'on lui dise qu'il a tort."

Tout continuait à s'infecter, les problèmes ne disparaissaient jamais et, pour une raison quelconque, personne ne les avait jamais intervenus.

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Le front froid de la complaisance a balayé le nord-est du Wisconsin à chaque fois que les Packers ont failli perdre un autre trophée Lombardi.

Après que les géants aient assommé ces 15-1 Packers.

Après que Colin Kaepernick ait zappé sa défense (deux fois).

Après l'effondrement de Seattle.

Après une défaite décisive dans le jeu du titre NFC à Atlanta.

À chaque fois, le directeur général qui a supervisé l'équipe de 2005 à 2017 n'a… rien. Ou proche de rien. C’est ce que soulignent ceux qui frappent la table pour Rodgers et McCarthy. Ils indiquent que Ted Thompson reste la tête dans le sable chaque saison. Ignorant la tension de construction entre les deux hommes, il a réuni pour diriger sa franchise. Et sa réticence obstinée à signer des vétérans, malgré la hausse du plafond salarial, rendait la vie plus difficile pour les deux.

Comme l’a dit un joueur, Thompson a supposé que le système Packers était automatique et qu’il pouvait simplement y connecter des recrues bon marché.

Au cours du processus, les Packers ont perdu les leaders que Rodgers et McCarthy n’ont jamais été, ne seraient jamais, et ils n’ont jamais trouvé de remplaçants.

Josh Sitton (un Packer de 2008 à 2015) et T.J. Lang (2009-2016). Les deux n'ont jamais eu peur de dire ce qu'ils en pensaient. Le défenseur John Kuhn (2007-2015) avait déjà été cité par plusieurs joueurs comme étant un leader vocal majeur. Finis tous ces récepteurs. Le plaqueur défensif Ryan Pickett (2006-2013) et le défenseur Charles Woodson (2006-2012) ont disparu. Le plaqueur défensif B.J. Raji (2009-2015), qui a été déclaré défenseur par un joueur everyone responsable de la défense. Thompson lowballed Raji, choisissant plutôt de payer beaucoup d'argent au plaqueur défensif cracheur de feu Mike Daniels. Tandis que Daniels est déterminé à bousiller le label "soft" de Green Bay, l'un de ses coéquipiers a déclaré que les hommes étaient rebutés par son "leadership hypocrite".

Thompson voulait que les Packers restent jeunes. Ce faisant, il a vidé l'équipe de son cœur et de son âme.

Un joueur a déclaré que les choses étaient si mauvaises que les joueurs offensifs et défensifs n’ont presque jamais quitté le terrain. La camaraderie a été abattue.

"Les gars ont vraiment commencé à se dire:" Je ne peux pas être payé ici ", a déclaré un joueur. "Comment laissez-vous marcher certains types qui ont fait leurs preuves?"

L’exode des dirigeants a poussé Rodgers de plus en plus loin dans un rôle mal adapté. Il n'a jamais eu à craindre de s'exprimer en 2010 ni en 2011. Il a joué au football. That's what he prefers. Multiple sources say Rodgers misses those days, with one adding he's become worn down and bitter about everyone's expectations of the type of leader he should be. In other words, as a former Packers scout puts it, Rodgers "is Brett Favre 2.0. He used to say, 'Oh, I'll never be like that guy.' And he literally is."

Back in Grant's day, the Packers were armed with legit leaders at every position.

Those teams self-policed. McCarthy never had to intervene. Rodgers never had to speak up.

"The reason we did well was because we weren't looking for Aaron to be a phenomenal leader," Grant says. "He needed to be a phenomenal quarterback, because we were leaders. We handled our own position, and we weren't looking for someone else to be that guy, to be that leader. … It was, 'We've got this s–t.' When things got out of hand, we were like, 'What's wrong with y'all?' I don't know what this looks like now."

Chances are, Rodgers would be less apt to defy a coach with more vets in the room.

Players his age, who've seen it all, wouldn't put up with his antics.

"There's no one there to hold him accountable," Jennings says.

How Thompson failed to grasp this dynamic baffles people in the organization, although they also believe someone above Thompson should've stepped in because the GM's health was deteriorating. One personnel man recalls Thompson moving "really slow," with slurred speech, falling asleep during film sessions. "I'm like, 'This is the GM?'" Thompson was dealing with obvious physical issues, and Mark Murphy, the team president since 2007, didn't step in.

Thompson kept on serving as the team's preeminent judge, jury and executioner.

Until, finally, he didn't.

After the 2017 season, Murphy replaced Thompson with Brian Gutekunst as GM.

In December, Murphy fired McCarthy.

There's no official "owner" in Green Bay—no one with a Jerry Jones-like heavy hand—but a decade after standing by Thompson, McCarthy and Rodgers when Favre tried to take his job back, Murphy is now wielding his power as de facto owner.

Only Rodgers is left now.

And Murphy made it clear that whatever happened last season cannot fly again.

---

At its best, the Lambeau mystique during the Rodgers-McCarthy era looked like this: Rodgers fakes a handoff, Rodgers boots, Rodgers chucks it 60 yards to a wide-open receiver, beers are spilled, "Bang the drum" roars, Rodgers does a little skip with a defiant uppercut of a fist pump.

When the Lambeau Field mystique evaporates, when the Packers offense inches closer and closer to collapse, it erodes to this: McCarthy sends play in. Rodgers does not approve. Rodgers calls own play in the huddle and/or tells a receiver to change his route. Exasperated sighs and snarls are exchanged all around. Nobody in their right mind is thinking, "They can't stop us."

The Packers finish 6-9-1.

The Packers suffer back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1990 and 1991.

Whoever's fault it was, it got ugly in 2018. Real ugly.

After signing the richest contract in NFL history, Rodgers took more liberties than ever before the snap. A talent drain and McCarthy's stubbornness were undoubtedly major issues. But Rodgers also showed virtually zero trust in his three rookie receivers, J'Mon Moore, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown. No. 1 wideout Davante Adams was targeted 169 times, one shy of Julio Jones' NFL high.

Rodgers had the leverage, and McCarthy knew it.

Maybe Rodgers had no choice but to railroad a rotting offense. Maybe Rodgers should have respected authority—after all, this offense helped him earn all that money.

Either way, he freelanced more than ever. One source with close ties to the team estimates Rodgers changed about a third of the plays McCarthy called. "An alarming amount. That is embarrassing. And they don't work!'" Realizing early on that his days in Green Bay were numbered, McCarthy would not rip Rodgers publicly. Not even as fans lambasted him for failing to feed dangerous running back Aaron Jones—while Rodgers simultaneously audibled out of runs.

That tendency to audible out of runs is just about the only issue Grant ever had with Rodgers as a teammate. That wasn't a problem in 2011. It was in 2018.

Life sure wasn't fun for those rookie receivers, either. On-the-fly route changes put them in a no-win situation. They didn't know whether to listen to their coaches or Rodgers.

A source close to the team says St. Brown became frustrated because as much as he wanted to follow McCarthy’s play design, he also heard rumors of Rodgers freezing out teammates if they didn't do exactly what he demanded. So he listened to Rodgers. On one play in New England, Rodgers told St. Brown to run a post route when the play called for a flag. St. Brown ran the post, and pressure forced Rodgers to throw the ball away toward the flag—leading his position coach to grill him on what he was thinking.

St. Brown told him he was "improvising" so he didn't upset Rodgers.

Knowing what was up, McCarthy told him to stick with the routes called.

"That's when it went off the rails," the source close to the team says. "This s–t was terrible. He f–ked McCarthy over. Aaron undermined him."

The A.I. was operating on its own. Nobody was going to rein this in.

"Of course, it comes to a head, and what does he want to do?" says a source who was once close to Rodgers. "He wants to cut him out of his life, just like he cut his family out."

Rodgers refused to take scheduled throws underneath, instead waiting for a deep shot that rarely materialized. The lack of experience did not help. These rookies simply did not have the thousands of reps Rodgers once had with Nelson and company, so he couldn't make subtle audibles play after play with them. In one red-zone drill in practice, St. Brown didn't pick up on a signal, and Rodgers lost it. No, he wasn't exactly giving these rookies a chance to grow, either. A source close to one of the team's skill-position starters says Rodgers was the one "sinking the ship" with zero interest in developing Valdes-Scantling, St. Brown or Moore.

The slightest mistake faded them out of his peripheral vision and sent him back to zeroing in on Adams.

"If they don't make plays, you can't just not go to them again," this source says. "You have to keep building trust in them."

Instead, he chose not to throw the ball to rookies open in one-on-one coverage. It's likely no coincidence Valdes-Scantling faded out of the offense down the stretch. He ran the routes as they were called from the sideline, and his targets declined. Rodgers would look his way, then pat, pat, pat the ball for something else to develop. Why? A source close to the team says Valdes-Scantling told him Rodgers just didn't like him. That he wasn't doing exactly what Rodgers asked him to do, so the quarterback started to freeze him out.

"Can you imagine Mike McCarthy trying to coach through all this s–t?" that source asks.

McCarthy had lost all control of the machine, basically conceded defeat and was fired.

The knee injury Rodgers suffered in Week 1 did not help. Jennings acknowledges that. But even if the expiration date on McCarthy's offense had passed, he believes this kind of insubordination cannot be ignored. He even hints at a tinge of strategy to Rodgers' cavalier ways.

"When something gets stale, you're not as motivated," Jennings says. "You're not as invested. Because even though you want to perform well, you're still out to prove, 'I told you so.' There's a fine line of saying, 'Was he purposely doing things?' or, 'Was it just McCarthy?' Because it had been so successful before, it's hard to just say it was all McCarthy and none of Aaron. …

"Is it enough for him to say, 'You know what, I'm going to have a record-breaking year that's eventually going to keep McCarthy for another year.' Is he willing to do that? I don't think so.

"Just because change happens doesn't mean the problem still doesn't exist."

Grant blames neither Rodgers or McCarthy but admits so many seasons with the same coach can turn that coach's voice into "white noise." Change was needed. The marriage was years beyond repair. From afar, Finley barely recognized the coach he loved Green Bay, the one who'd invite him into his office and snipe, "It's time to catch the f–king ball!" Finley loved that authenticity. His best games came after talks like that.

And last season, to him, McCarthy looked "fed up and washed up. Just tired, period."

For years, Rodgers built up a justifiable benefit of the doubt. Two MVPs, a Super Bowl title and ridiculous Hail Marys tend to make all of this drama, all of these headaches, worth it.

Now, it appears that benefit has been squashed. By Murphy.

Right before the Packers announced LaFleur as their new head coach, the source close to the team says Murphy called Rodgers to tell him who they were going with. He didn't ask for permission—he told him who the choice was. There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone before Rodgers eventually spoke. Murphy made it clear that Rodgers would need to accept coaching. "Don't be the problem," he told him. "Don't be the problem."

Whoever's to blame, Murphy does not want drama engulfing his team again.

The source close to the team says the president is "tired of the diva stuff."

Over the years, Rodgers has preferred to surround himself with "Yes men," multiple sources say. That's why many thought Murphy would hire a "Yes man" to be the next head coach. To keep the peace. One former personnel man in Green Bay insists Murphy should've gotten Rodgers' input and approval because, in his view, Rodgers is the one who makes the Packers relevant. Instead, Murphy made it clear to Rodgers that the organization was behind LaFleur.

The Packers' brass did not feel the need to get Rodgers' approval on whomever it hired. Murphy wanted a young coach who'd challenge the entire team, not just the quarterback.

Excitement's in the Lambeau air again. Gutekunst inked a trio of defensive starters in a matter of 24 hours: edge-rusher Za'Darius Smith, safety Adrian Amos and linebacker Preston Smith. He's the anti-Ted, determined to toughen up this soft defense. LaFleur is bound to be more creative than McCarthy. New offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett is a Type A who'll push Rodgers. Luke Getsy, the new quarterbacks coach, is a straight shooter who's been in Green Bay before.

Only one question remains.

Will Aaron Rodgers be the problem?

---

Nobody outside of the state of Wisconsin is shedding a tear for the Packers. This is still a franchise that's enjoyed nothing but Hall of Fame quarterbacks since 1992. Pull up the highlights of Rodgers and McCarthy celebrating, not the ones of Rodgers and McCarthy fighting, Harris implores.

The ex-Packers back surely speaks for millions in saying this generation of Packers fans is spoiled.

Then he offers a warning.

"The Packers went through their terrible time of losing before," Harris says. "History can repeat itself."

There's some concern it could, some concern the Packers are becoming too corporate. One former team personnel man describes Ed Policy, the team's chief operating officer, as a quiet "puppet master" angling for more football power. He adds Policy "has way more clout than people think” and that everyone in power got drunk off the team's success over the years.

The business of the franchise has expanded tremendously with the new "Titletown District" across the street from Lambeau booming. Some in-house worry the business side of things could infiltrate actual football decisions. Even Grant heard it's not as family-friendly as it used to be in Green Bay.

Right now, Murphy's in charge, and he cares deeply about the product on the field.

Rodgers' game might reach a new stratosphere with LaFleur. The optimists see a coach who'll insert this combination of gifts—muzzleloader right arm, Houdini-like escapability, a QB Grand Maester intellectually—into an X's-and-O's equation that'll now spit out an endless stream of MVPs and Super Bowls as it should have all along.

After dismissing anything Jennings and Finley say—"F–k those guys"—one former coach says Rodgers has matured and dismisses the idea that he'd blow off anyone who can't match his IQ. He says Rodgers simply wants a coach "who isn't going to bulls–t him" and expects Getsy, who was in Green Bay from 2014 to 2017 and spent last year at Mississippi State, to be precisely that.

And isn't last season what McCarthy and the Packers basically signed up for from the jump? To him, you can't have it both ways.

"You give a guy a green light to do whatever he wants and then criticize him for it. Which one do you want?" the coach says. "Do you want him to be creative, or do you want him to be exactly what you tell him?"

This fine line will be central to anything LaFleur implements on offense. That's why Grant is more interested in what the offense looks like schematically than any wins and losses in 2019. This is a cerebral game now more than ever, and he knows Rodgers is frustrated that time is running out. Grant expects change to rejuvenate the quarterback.

And yet some do expect the 35-year-old player to railroad the 39-year-old first-time head coach.

"He already had a sense of entitlement, then you give him $200 million," Finley repeats. "Then you give him a young head coach. I think in Aaron Rodgers' heart, that's what he always wanted. He wanted to take control."

The challenge for LaFleur will be to strike a balance between showing confidence in himself and being a Tom Coughlin-like drill sergeant who Rodgers would tune out. Something like a "really, really hard cheerleader," one ex-personnel man in Green Bay says, chuckling, as though he's skeptical such a coach exists.

If LaFleur does strike that tricky balance and revitalizes Rodgers, Jennings thinks his old QB can enter the GOAT/Brady stratosphere. He's just not sure how willing Rodgers is when the quarterback's first public comments about the hire, at the NFL Honors, started off with the words, "A lot of change, in life in general, it's tough at first." That's all he needed to hear. To Jennings, that quote practically guaranteed how this will go down.

"I know how Aaron operates," Jennings says. "For him to make that statement, it already lets me know he's going to make it hard on a young Matt LaFleur."

To him, Rodgers doesn't need to sacrifice too much. It's as simple as what Brady did in the AFC title game, handing the ball off to backs 47 times to keep Patrick Mahomes off the field. LaFleur has already hinted at wanting to run the ball more.

Newfound humility would help the quarterback with five fewer rings.

Some self-reflection.

"Now it's, OK, are you willing to swallow all the sense of entitlement? All your pride?" Jennings says. "You don't even have to swallow all of it. But are you willing to suppress most of it and say, 'You know what, whatever it takes, I'm willing to do'?"

With McCarthy gone, all eyes, all pressure, all scrutiny, will be directed toward Rodgers. It's on him to make that sacrifice, to work with others. After all, he brought the magic to Lambeau before.

He can do it again.

Even Jennings acknowledges that reality.

"Just as much as he is a part of the problem," Jennings says, "he's a big part of the solution."

Tyler Dunne covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TyDunne.