Packers' Aaron Rodgers blasts 'horse----' report about hand signals
Aaron Rodgers has blasted a story from The Athletic that suggested the Green Bay Packers quarterback has confused teammates over his use of numerous hand signals during games.
"Let me tell you, I was made aware of that article," Rodgers explained during his Tuesday appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," as shared by Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. "It is by far the dumbest 'nothing-burger' article that I’ve read the entire season. I won’t say in my career because last year there was some of the dumbest articles you could possibly imagine.
"I don’t know if you can ever top the 'COVID toe' Wall Street Journal article. But this was the dumbest article of the year, by far."
After Rodgers missed a game in November 2021 because he tested positive for COVID-19 as an unvaccinated player, Andrew Beaton of The Wall Street Journal and other outlets speculated that a lingering foot issue bothering the future Hall-of-Famer at that time was a condition commonly referred to as "COVID toe." Rodgers eventually confirmed he had a fractured toe and famously displayed the hurting digit during a Zoom conference call with media members:
More recently, Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic reported for a piece published last week that Rodgers expects receivers and other teammates to know "somewhere" around 30 hand signals that he uses to change routes and other aspects of plays at the line of scrimmage. Kahler added that players "get quizzed on" the signals on Saturdays, and she also noted that the signals aren't written anywhere and aren't searchable via the team's electronic tablets.
"95 percent of that article was absolute complete horse----, and the other five percent is exaggerated nothingness," Rodgers said about Kahler's piece. "There was something about that it’s not written or stored anywhere, there’s not a file. Bull----."
As of Tuesday afternoon, Kahler's Twitter bio included the phrase "exaggerated nothingness" in an apparent shoutout to Rodgers. She also responded to the quarterback via the social media website:
Rodgers and the Packers improved to 6-8 on the season via their 24-12 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. Per ESPN stats, the 39-year-old begins Week 16 28th among qualified quarterbacks with a 40.8 total QBR on the campaign and tied for eighth with 23 passing touchdowns. Seven signal-callers have thrown more interceptions than Rodgers (10) this season.
Green Bay next plays at the 8-6 Miami Dolphins on Christmas Day.
More must-reads: