Aaron Rodgers defends job futures of Mike Tomlin, Matt LaFleur
- Aaron Rodgers believes the idea of firing coaches like Mike Tomlin or Matt LaFleur would have been unthinkable earlier in his career.
- Rodgers criticized the influence of social media and TV experts on NFL coaching decisions, calling it a ‘joke.’
- He stated that when a team has the right coach and culture, changes should not be considered despite outside pressure.
PITTSBURGH – Back in Aaron Rodgers’ day, aka the 2000s, the idea of firing either the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin, or the Green Bay Packers’ Matt LaFleur would be considered asinine, the 42-year-old quarterback believes.
Rodgers acknowledged that bias, since he played for both of the coaches, played a part in his stance. But he knows how he’d run things if it were his call to make.
“This league has changed a lot in my 21 years,” Rodgers said following the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Houston Texans, 30-6, on Jan. 12. “You know, when you hear conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world – those are just two that I’ve played for – when I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be (a) conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat.”
The way in which the NFL is covered now, Rodgers said, and the “snap decisions” that are made in accordance with the larger discourse is an issue.
“The validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me, that’s an absolute joke,” Rodgers said. “For either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and as a league.”
LaFleur’s season ended Saturday when his Packers collapsed in the second half against the Chicago Bears and lost. Despite a NFL Media report from the end of the regular season saying a contract extension could be in the works, which was mirrored by an ESPN report Monday that LaFleur’s job was safe, speculation spread that Green Bay could be looking to move on from the seventh-year head coach.
Tomlin, meanwhile, lost his seventh straight playoff game June 12 with Rodgers as his quarterback to wrap up the duo’s first – and perhaps only – season as a coach-QB duo.
“Obviously, Matt has done a lot of great things in Green Bay, and we had a lot of success,” said Rodgers, who won his third and fourth MVPs while being coached by LaFleur. “‘Mike T.’ has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19, 20 years.
“More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously that sways decisions from time to time. But that’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”
