Retired former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver offered his opinion on the recent feud between teammates Greg Jennings and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Having played with Jennings and Rodgers, Driver appeared on ESPN radio Thursday morning, and took a stab at figuring what was going on between the two ex-teammates. Jennings, who left Green Bay this offseason to pay with their NFC North rivals the Minnesota Vikings, had some critical things to say about Rodgers, who he referred to oddly by number, to the Minneapolis Star Tribune last month.
"Don't get me wrong, '12' is a great person. But when you hear all positives, all positives, all positives all the time, it's hard for you to sit down when one of your teammates says, 'Man, come on, you've got to hold yourself accountable for this.' It's hard for someone to see that now because all they've heard is I'm doing it the right way. I'm perfect. In actuality, we all have flaws," Jennings told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Driver offered his take on it Thursday, according to ESPN.
"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,'" Driver said according to ESPN. "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. But I think that's the difference. You want that leadership, and I think sometimes you may not feel like you got it. You have to earn that respect at the end of the day, and I think that's what Greg was probably referring to."
Still, Driver said that he didn't notice any sort of rift between the two last season when he was with the team.
"No one knows exactly what happened between those two," Driver said. "I didn't see anything during the season; I didn't see anything after the season. But you just never know, you never know what types of things happen between them."
Driver, who played five years with Rodgers, said he was "a nice guy" and that he had to "respect" that.
Driver played in 13 games with Rodgers last season, having eight receptions for 77 yards and two touchdowns before announcing his retirement last January after 14 NFL seasons, all spent with Green Bay.
Jennings, meanwhile, had 36 receptions for 366 yards and four touchdowns with Rodgers last season before signing a five-year $47.5 million contract with $18 million guaranteed with the Vikings last March after spending seven years with Green Bay.
Rodgers shook off Jennings' comments, and will now look to lead the Packers without both Jennings and Driver this season. Rodgers went 371-for-552 for 4,295 yards with 39 touchdowns and eight interceptions in an impressive year for Green Bay (11-5-0) which saw the team reach first place in the NFC North before falling to the 49ers in the divisional playoffs.
Rodgers and Jennings enjoyed success with the Packers last season, but now they'll be bitter rivals both on and off the field.
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