On Sunday, the Packers were primed for more Aaron Rodgers heroics. Down two to the Rams with over two minutes to play, there was plenty of time for him to get his team into field goal range and hand the Rams their first loss of the season. But then, Ty Montgomery—perhaps because of earlier anger at being taken out—decided he play hero when the kickoff sailed into the end zone and he brought it out anyway, in direct conflict with the instructions he was given by his coaches. Rodgers did not react well to the mishap ending his chances at another last-minute comeback.
"Aaron was hot," one Packers coach told NFL.com. " He had that right too because the coaches had instructed him to kneel.
He yelled, 'Take a fucking knee!' He was very, very mad," the coach added. The reason behind Montgomery's direct disobedience could be traced back to the last offensive possession when— according to a half-dozen Packers players who spoke to NFL.com about the game—he was enraged at being taken out. Another Packers player used the same expletive to discuss Montgomery's tantrum and ensuing fumble when he brought it out of the end zone.
"They took him out for a play and he slammed his helmet and threw a fit," a Packers player told NFL.com. "Then they told him to take a knee, and he ran it out anyway. You know what that was? That was him saying, 'I'm gonna do me.' It's a fucking joke.
"I mean, what the fuck are you doing?" he continued. "We've got Aaron Rodgers, the best I've ever seen, and you're gonna take that risk? I mean, it's '12'! All you gotta do is give him the ball, and you know what's gonna happen."
For his part, Rodgers said all the right things after the game: "Our defense was playing really well and stopping them over and over again. We've got to get more than 10 points while that's happening." His disquiet about the kickoff return only percolated to the surface for a second.
"And then to have it end the way it did, obviously, it's frustrating," Rodgers concluded. Frustrating is a really nice way of putting it.
