Aaron Rodgers was always a polarizing figure during his 18 years with the Green Bay Packers.
Now by at least one metric, Rodgers has been voted the NFL’s ‘Most Annoying Player.’
Former Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers was voted the NFL’s ‘Most Annoying Player.’
AP2011
Action Network recently polled more than 3,000 football fans and asked a handful of questions, including who is the league’s ‘Most Annoying Player?’
Rodgers, now with the New York Jets, was the runaway winner garnering 27% of the vote. Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce was second with 17% and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Odell Beckham was third at 10%.
Rodgers was named ‘Most Annoying’ by 24 of the NFL’s 32 fan bases, including Green Bay’s. Kelce was named ‘Most Annoying’ by the other eight fan bases.
Rodgers, one of the most talented, yet enigmatic players in Packer history, left behind a complicated legacy. Despite one of the more impressive résumés in team history, Rodgers never captured the fan base like BrettBrett +9.2% Favre, Bart Starr, Don Hutson or Reggie White.
Rodgers won four MVP awards — the second-most in team history — and led Green Bay to the 2010 Super Bowl title. But over his final years with the Packers, Rodgers performed poorly in big games. He was also at the center of continuous off-the-field drama that alienated many fans and did tremendous harm to his reputation in Green Bay
Rodgers was constant commotion, an endless array of fuss. As the years passed, and the noise from Rodgers got louder, his supporters dwindled.
The drama began as the passive-aggressive Rodgers took continuous jabs at former head coach Mike McCarthy throughout the years. And while McCarthy lost his fastball during his final days in Green Bay, he also lost the support of Rodgers.
McCarthy was fired on Dec. 2, 2018 — which ironically was Rodgers’ 35th birthday — and Rodgers was given the label of ‘Coach Killer.’
Just five hours before the 2021 NFL Draft, word leaked that Rodgers didn’t want to ever play for Green Bay again. Rodgers eventually reported to training camp, but only after the Packers agreed to give him a say in personnel decisions, which included trading for wideout Randall Cobb that summer.
Rodgers skipped the Packers’ offseason program in 2022, a time he could have developed chemistry with a revamped wide receiver group. What followed was a dreadful 8-9 season for Green Bay in which Rodgers and the receivers were never in sync.
Rodgers was critical of Matt LaFleur throughout the 2022 season, at one point saying his head coach needed to “simplify the offense.”
And he took shots at his teammates, telling his pal Pat McAfee: “Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn’t be playing, you know. Gotta start cutting some reps, and maybe guys who aren’t playing, give them a chance.”
Rodgers went on a darkness retreat, took an ayahuasca journey and lied about being vaccinated during his final years in Green Bay.
And when he was traded to the New York Jets on April 26, 2023, his popularity with Packer Nation was in the tank.
The Jets hoped Rodgers could help resurrect their dreadful franchise. Instead, Rodgers played just four snaps in 2023 before suffering a torn Achilles tendon. And this offseason, Rodgers skipped the Jets’ mandatory OTA’s with an ‘unexcused absence.’