By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
AOL's home page greeted me with the following headline Monday morning: "Rodgers Takes Image To Next Level."
It amazes me when news outlets — broadcast, online, whatever the venue — just make up the stories as they go along. If not the stories, then they at least invent the importance of what they think are necessary stories.
The irony is that some outlets are saying Rodgers is officially out from under the shadow of legendary former Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre. I'm not quite sure how you measure that, but I don't think he'll actually be out of Favre's shadow until scribes stop pondering whether that is indeed the case. By endlessly breathing "Favre" and "Rodgers" into the same sentence, writers are answering the question before they even answer the question: Rodgers is hardly out from Favre's shadow.
But why is that even relevant? Who cares? A guy wins a Super Bowl — and the game's MVP award — and suddenly these pain-in-the-ass pencilnecks feel obligated to kill Rodgers' buzz by comparing him to the guy who updated the record books right before he got there.
This "Next Level" business reminds me of when I used to fail my verbal book reports in high school. When I would say something deeply profound like "I liked this book because it had a lot of suspense in it," the wise move would have been to follow up with a concrete example or two. I didn't.
I don't really know what the next level for Rodgers is, nor am I certain what the previous level was. That AOL headline should have been more specific, but then, that would have required effort on the part of its online editors. I rarely know what the levels are in any case where a writer or, more likely, a television analyst, says anything about a "next level." It's just a wasted expression so vague that its readers or listeners are left writing angry columns afterward.
The funny thing is that the actual column, another good one by AOL FanHouse writer Terence Moore, compares Rodgers not to Favre, but to another great Green Bay quarterback. Bart Starr led the Packers to wins in the first two Super Bowls more than 40 years ago, and Moore contends that Starr is now the target for Rodgers, not ol' No. 4.
If anyone's image is in need of an upgrade, it's not Rodgers; it's his Super Bowl XLV counterpart, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He's been trying to repair it for nearly a year after being accused of sexual assault and serving a four-game suspension to start the 2010 NFL season. All throughout the postseason, Big Ben flashed a happy, positive self for the cameras, smiling more and cracking jokes here and there. His sincerity might not rival that of Michael Vick, but he's trying.
Rodgers' image needs no upgrades, fixes or next levels. He's now a Super Bowl-winning quarterback who's claimed all along he was fine being patient behind Favre, and just wanted to win football games once he got his chance. Can we please just believe him, maybe write about his humility and stop digging where there's nothing more to be found?