Monday, January 17, 2011

Aaron Rodgers hates cancer....patients? (Follow up: He doesn't)

This post in painful for me to write It is perhaps a bit reactionary and there may be more details about this yet to come out, but tonight, someone has greatly disappointed me. Someone who I thought was pretty awesome and I supported in his quest to be one of the best in the game of football. For European readers, by Football I mean Football, not Soccer. The man in question is NFL Star Quarterback and Green Bay Packers sensation Aaron Rodgers. Up until about 14 hours ago, the man was my second favorite player in the NFL. He rocked the shit, for reals.

The rest of this post is moot now, because you can just click on the link below for my follow up:

UPDATE: HE STILL ROCKS THE SHIT FOR REALS

(Rocking Shit, Kung Fu Style!)

I want to point out in case any of you were curious (you probably weren't, but I'd like to give him a mention on this site) my favorite player is the BEST safety in the game (regardless of C.Bailey's opinion on the matter) Pittsburgh Steelers defensive stalwart/undisputed NFL Hair Champion Troy Polomalu. Take a bow, you soft spoken samoan shark, you.

(As much hair on his head as there is ferocity in his...fuck it. He just rules)

So yeah, what would cause me to possibly turn on Aaron Rodgers so abruptly? There are currently only two things that set me off on someone that quickly: 1. Anti-Canadian sentiment b) Being a dick to people who are sick. You can probably tell from the title of this post, he may have done the latter. And even though I consider it awful to be a dick to even a person who has a cold or flu, Aaron Rodgers "apparently" snubbed a cancer survivor. Based on the potentially biased video footage, I may dislike him more now than I dislike stupidface Jay Cutler, and I hate me some Cutler.

(Although he has a stupid face, he doesn't use it to disrespect cancer patients)

My previous appreciation/man-crush on Aaron Rodgers wasn't based on hero worship or anything silly like that. I'm a bit too old awesome to have a role model and if I was going to pick one, it WOULD NOT be a professional athelete. It would probably be any middle aged person who works at a fast food restaurant. That isn't a joke either. This might be the only serious thing I say all year, so brace yourselves: Nothing is more admirable to me than people who sacrifice and work a shit job that they hate to provide for people they love and who rely on them. I don't know the story of every older person I see working those jobs, but truthfully there is nobody I respect more. Enough serious? Let's move on. Here is what I loved about Aaron Rodgers:


The guy spent YEARS in future hall of fame Quarterback/Notorious Sexter Brett Favre's shadow. Favre was BELOVED by the Green Bay Packers fans, players, owners, hot dog cart guys, scalpers pretty much anyone in the entire state of Wisconsin would trade their kids to catch a pass from the man. He was a legend. But as humans tend to do, motherfucker was getting old and beat up so the Packers drafted a young upstart with something to prove named Aaron Rodgers. He studied under Favre for years, waiting for the old man to pass the torch and to finally get his shot. Favre said he would retire, and then went back on his word roughly 63 times in his last years in Green Bay, and poor old Aaron just had to sit back and take it. What could he say? He was a nobody and Favre was a midwest diety.

(It was also rumored he could control the weather...this was never confirmed. But fuck that guy)

So after one too many "I'm retiring...no wait nevermind" incidents. Green Bay decided to move on and put their trust in Aaron Rodgers. Even though Favre had only given them 1 Super Bowl Championship (which granted is 1 more than I have given the city of Vancouver...for now) They supported him and just heaped a metric ton of venom onto Aaron Rodgers for no good reason, the guy was just doing his job. One of the more famous incidents came when a young child at training camp told him "We Don't Love You".

(How can you not be on this guys side after that?)

But ol' #12 just kept his mouth shut, worked hard, and eventually became popular with the fans, but also one of the premiere Quarterbacks in all of football. He was my first round draft pick and cornerstone of my fantasy football team, "Pasty White Fight Night" this year. And I won the Consolation Championship (regardless of what G.Nolan has to say about it). The guy has incredible talent which is hard not to like/notice.

(He also has the strength of 10 men)

Looking back on what I just wrote and the history of his short career so far, it's hard not to see what I liked about him so much. However, as me and B.Shirlaw discussed today while watching NFL playoffs, it's not that Aaron Rodgers did something great to make him likeable, maybe it's that he didn't do anything to make him hated.

Well the tables may have  turned now buddy!

Check out this news story from the other day. Keep in mind Green Bay Wisconsin is like the Saskatchewan of America, they don't have a whole lot going for them other than their *cough* professional *cough* football team. Check out this shit (in case you aren't sure which one is Aaron Rodgers, he is the dude with his headphones in)



Aaron Rodgers, dude c'mon. If the TV news station aired it out on context, I will next do a post about how awful at their jobs they are in my "Aaron Rodgers is actually a saint" post. Clay Matthews (who is awesome btw) decimated the 1 defence Rodgers may have had. They were told about her on the airplane?! I was stunned when this was brought to my attention. Stunned, and to be honest, fucking heartbroken. I'm still trying to get over the fact that Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assualt. I spent years not liking the Packers because I dislike Brett Favre (he totally tried to cockblock Ben Stiller in "There's Something About Mary") but I was finally coming around to them and hoping they would do well. Rodgers was a big part of that. I thought he handled the situation of having to work his ass off to win the approval of the fans with class. It was a feel good story, and that's what I love about sports.


Turns out he didn't he just handled it very VERY privately. I am going to assume that Rodgers didn't see this lady. You know what they say about "assume" don't you? If you assume...you are a fucking idiot. Get some facts! (I kinda put a twist on an old, crappy saying). I'd like to point out that Packers linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. was apparently a real big sweetheart to the woman and signed anything she wanted and gave her a big hug. Which is awesome, even though a hug from him might kill someone.

(Tenderness is for pussies...hehe)

So yeah, basically my thesis statement for this post is "SAY IT AIN'T SO, AARON RODGERS!" You may have lost a fan sir. I don't care if you were listening to "Thriller" on your ipod when you walked past her, you be good to your fans (especially the terminally ill ones). Now this story has sorta blown up and will only become a bigger deal in the coming days and I hope as a result of that more details will emerge clearing him of any wrongdoing. Aaron Rodgers will apologize probably (because he has a publicist that tells him how to be a good person. Apperently they were at the rent-a-car stand at the airport when he douched up). He will sign a bunch of shit for the woman and make things right but as far as i'm concerned, in the off chance that what happened in the video is how it went down, it doesn't matter what he does. He had to take 9 seconds out of his day to make a huge impact on someone who has struggled through a lot and based on the video, guy turned heel.

(Basically, yeah)

It's messed up. I still respect his talents as a player but man, and I hope there is an explanation that excuses what he did to that lady. If it's a dude who is obviously going to sell whatever he signs on Ebay to turn a profit, that's one thing. But the only thing worse than snubbing that lady would be if she was in a wheelchair...and had both legs missing. Essentially a cross between cancer patient and Gary Sinise from Forrest Gump.

("Aaron Rodgers did what?!!")

Aaron Rodgers rules until proven shitty. As I said IF there is no reasonable explanation for this, I am sorely disappointed that this happened. I kinda hate Ryan from the Office now just because he looks stunningly like Aaron Rodgers.
(Right: Douchebag? Left: Plays one on TV)

Normally I don't really care if a musician or an athlete or someone I like has a slight tinge of asshole to them, as my reasoning is "I'm not trying to be there friend, so what do I care? I just like what they do". There is a line though, and Aaron Rodgers may have crossed it.

(NOTE: This is normally where I'd put a picture of Aaron Rodgers crossing the goal line for a touchdown to absolutely nail the analogy of him "crossing the line", but fuck that. Instead I'd like to treat you to a sampling of pictures of Aaron Rodgers not being so awesome)



That's pretty much how I feel about it. Nothing more to be said really. Although I want to point out two things. A) Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers play Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears next week in the NFC Championship game, winner goes on to the Super Bowl.

(Still cheering for Rodgers)

And the second thing I wanted to point out is that even though that is 1 short clip and perhaps it is getting blown up a bit, it's hard to excuse it under any circumstances. I sincerely hope something else comes out about this incident or in some way this was some sort of mistake or it was grossly out of context. Regardless though, he walks right passed her. No hello, not even a head nod. What the fuck? As I said I really hope I am wrong and I would gladly do a follow up post about how awesome he turned out to be. He attends team sponsored charity events and does all those good PR things he is supposed to, but here he totally got caught with his pants down and that is unfortunate. But who knows? Maybe, after all this, these two deserve each other.


You know what, after posting this I re-watched the video and I don't think I gave enough love to Clay Matthews for how sweet he was to that lady. So here are some pictures of Clay Matthews drilling Jay Cutler.

(Good on ya, sir. Respect)

As for #12. I am hopeful this is all just one big, horribly represented misunderstanding. 
 (Cause this guy was pretty dope)


IN CASE YOU MISSED THE LINK EARLIER, CLICK HERE FOR THE UPDATE ON THIS STORY

Thanks for Reading

-jB
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6 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSpWbkZdAXI

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  2. Video link wasn't working "Anonymous". If it's about the cancer lady calling off the dogs, the fact that you dont think I know about that already and am writing a follow up disappoints me.

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  3. Having now watched the video, the amount of press there seems to detract from the selflessness of it. This could just be a good PR move and if I looked, I can even find the douchiest of athletes doing the same thing in one way or another. Tip for ya: If you wanted to disagree, ideally what you should have done is post a link to the article talking about how he took 75 kids from the local B & G club in Green Bay out for pizza and bowling and didn't want any cameras there.

    http://www.cheddarheadpackhouston.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38:an-aaron-rodgers-unpublished-story&catid=5:event&Itemid=11

    Better luck next time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. the woman, as seen in the clip, found out that her favorite player was getting slammed for having "snubbed a cancer patient."

    she immediately went to the press and informed them the entire thing had been a huge misunderstanding. just a week prior to this, he spent a half hour talking to the woman, signing things endlessly, and she in no way feels like a passed-over cancer victim..

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  5. j.Bowman, wrote a follow up like 3 weeks ago where he was relieved to find out Aaron Rodgers had done so.

    "Anonymous", who apparently has no concept of time and space, decided to comment on this weeks later, like a douche, thinking j.Bowman didn't know this already and didn't write this post:

    http://jbowmancantsleep.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-restored-faith-in-aaron-rodgers_21.html

    ReplyDelete