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Donald Driver Attempts to Explain the Aaron Rodgers-Greg Jennings Situation

In doing so, he practically throws Rodgers under the bus. Enjoy.

USA TODAY Sports

In attempting to shed some light on what's become maybe the off-season's most overblown war of words, former wide receiver and amateur salsa dancer, Donald Driver took to ESPN's ‘Mike & Mike in the Morning' show to explain. What he ended up doing however, was just stirring things up again.

When asked to clarify Greg Jennings' comments that seemed to question Aaron Rodgers' leadership, Driver said this:

We've always said that the quarterback is the one that needs to take the pressure off everyone else. If a guy runs the wrong route, it's easy for the quarterback to say, ‘Hey, I told him to run that route' than for the guy to be like, ‘Well, I ran the wrong route.' Sometimes you ask Aaron to take the pressure off the guys so we won't look bad, but he didn't want to do that. He felt like if you did something bad, you do it.

Right. So basically, Aaron Rodgers isn't being a leader by taking the blame for his receivers running crappy routes. It all makes perfect sense now.

It's no secret that part of being a quarterback (and the highest paid player on the team in most cases) means taking more heat when things go wrong, but to suggest that Rodgers is somehow passing the buck and less of a leader because he holds guys accountable is a little petty. For a guy who has made a career out of being the sort of anti-diva of pass catchers, this feels pretty wide receiver-y.

Rodgers recently told Peter King for an article on MMQB, "I want to be the best. I want to be counted on by this organization and the fans. I want to be someone they know is going to bring it every single week. I prepare to be the best. I take it very seriously and I've still got a long way to go."

We know Rodgers can be demanding of the players around him, but this doesn't sound like someone who's lacking leadership. Especially the kind done by example. You'd think a 7th round draft pick who had to fight so hard to make it in the NFL would understand that.

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