Former Packers Coach Blames Team for Aaron Rodgers Drama

A former Green Bay Packers coach doesn't like how the team is handling the situation with Aaron Rodgers. While appearing on the Carmen & Jurko show on ESPN Chicago, Mike Holmgren said it's the Packers' fault that Rodgers is looking to not return to the team next season. He believes that the Packers should have told Rodgers their plans for him before they drafted Jordan Love in the first round last year.

"They didn't handle it very well, I don't think," Holmgren said of the Packers' situation with Rodgers, per CBS Sports. Rodgers' issues with the Packers were the talk of this year's NFL Draft. However, the problems started well before then as mentioned with the team drafting Love. Packers management said they have been working with Rodgers to get through the issues, but Holmgren doesn't understand how it got to this point.

"It's not good, that's for sure," Holmgren said of the situation in Green Bay. "I can't imagine a relationship between the coach or management or whoever is making the decisions and the starting quarterback like that getting to this point. I just can't imagine it. I wouldn't allow it. It wouldn't happen. But now, it has happened."

While Holmgren is not happy about what's going on with his former team, he knows all about quarterback controversies. Holmgren was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which was when Joe Montana was the starting quarterback and Steve Young was the backup. There was some friction, but it ended up working out for everybody as Montana won his third and fourth Super Bowl with Young as the backup. And when Young took over as the starter, he led the 49ers to a Super Bowl in 1994.

"Bill Walsh didn't tell Joe they were bringing Steve Young in," Holmgren said. He just did it." It's possible that the Packers and Rodgers can work things out and the three-time NFL MVP returns to the team this summer. But how does that happen?

"I would call [Rodgers] in, we'd sit down and not leave until we kind of had an understanding one way or the other," he said. "I would call him in [and say], 'This is how it's gonna affect you. We've got to get ready for when you retire. We've got to take care of the franchise, but nothing's going to happen now. You're the man, you're the guy.'