Okay now that we have the football stuff covered, and all the speculation of about Aaron Rodgers ‘ health has been done, we can return to your regularly scheduled programming, the rumors and speculation about Rodgers’ personal life, sexual orientation. And even his relationship with famous actress Olivia Munn (a situation some have branded a distraction)
No, we’re joking. Sort of.
You have to hand it to Aaron Rodgers. As a NFL superstar quarterback, he has all the distractions (money, celebrity girlfriends, fame, the life of a rock star) that could impair his game.
Then there’s the distraction he has that almost all do not- people questioning his sexual persuasion. Rodgers shuts it all out, and just gets the job done. He’s got laser focus on the signal, eliminating the noise.
Johnny Manziel is the opposite. He’s more loving the life than loving the game. He needs to change, and that starts this offseason. Otherwise his career is over. Aaron Rodgers would be a good role model for Johnny Football. So would plenty of other franchise QBs for that matter. Even Tony Romo. Remember the whole “Jessica Simpson, Carrie Underwood, etc. is a distraction” narrative?
Romo outgrew it, and Manziel could mature one day too.
Both FOX Sports and CBS Sports had their lead announce teams do conference calls with the media this week to preview conference championship weekend. Green Bay Packers at Seattle Seahawks kicks off at 3 pm on FOX. Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots kicks of at 6:40 pm on CBS.
Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will call the AFC game. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck will call the NFC game. On the call, I asked Buck about Aaron Rodgers and Johnny Manziel, and the big differences between the two.
Podcast is below:
“Aaron Rodgers came into a situation, and he’s a quiet guy to begin with, so that’s where a lot of this begins and ends for me. A lot of it depends on the individual, Aaron Rodgers came from a small school to Cal, to a small town in Green Bay,” Buck said.
“Back-up quarterback to Brett Favre for three years, to finally getting his opportunity. Like I said a quiet guy by nature, and in a market that suits the quiet guy because there isn’t the roaring nightlife that might be in other cities. I think even Cleveland has more going on than Green Bay in that regard.”
“Now Johnny Manziel, I don’t know him at all, never met him, don’t know if I ever will, who knows,” Buck said.
“But he came into the NFL, walking across the stage at the draft with his hands in the air, flashing the money sign. He’s on Instagram, he’s Tweeting pictures of him in the club, getting pictures of him tweeted by other people in situations that don’t befit a franchise quarterback.”
“He’s not shy about it, he’ll answer questions and say that he can compartmentalize, go about his work and have his fun. He’s completely different from Aaron Rodgers in that way.”
“He came in looking for the spotlight, now he got the spotlight. He had a start and fell flat on his face. When you come in with ‘look at me! look at me! look at me! and then when they do look at you better deliver. And that’s just not what Aaron Rodgers is about.
“There’s a lot more guys in Aaron Rodgers camp than there are guys coming in trying to trademark Johnny Football.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yardbarker Network, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)