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Brett Favre Still Sounds A Little Salty About Aaron Rodgers’ Success

Aaron Rodgers is really, really good. He was brilliant last year in leading the Packers to a Super Bowl title – really, he’s been terrific the entire time he’s been the Packers’ starter – and so far, 2011 is shaping up as his best year yet. Through four games he’s got 12 touchdowns against two interceptions, has completed 73 percent of his passes, and has also run for two scores. It’s hard to play quarterback much better than Rodgers is playing it…and based on some recent comments, we’re not so sure how much the man Rodgers replaced in Green Bay, Brett Favre, enjoys that fact.

Favre did a radio interview a couple days ago. Among the topics that came up: how he’s enjoying retirement, whether he ever thought he made a mistake coming back with the Vikings, and yes, his successor as Packers quarterback. And let the record show Favre had some good things to say about his former understudy: he praised Rogers’ “tremendous talent” and said he’s “very bright.” But some of the things he said leading up to that were problematic: Favre talked at length about the talent surrounding Rodgers on the Packers (which, granted, is excellent: you don’t win a Super Bowl with one great player). Favre said that talent is so good, in fact, that…

“I’m really surprised that it just kind of took him so long.”

Again…last season was Rodgers’ third as a starter. Favre won his Super Bowl in his fifth season as starter. And Favre didn’t stop there: he talked about how Rodgers “fell in to a good situation” (in fairness, Favre also said, “on top of that, he’s a good player”), and how he “saw a successful team do it right.” There’s probably truth in that…for 2007, anyway. During Rodgers’ first two seasons as backup after being drafted in 2005, the Packers went 4-12 and 8-8, respectively.

Of course Favre would think watching a great player like him helped make Aaron Rodgers what he is today. Again, he may well be right. And that he’d say so isn’t a shock – it’s no secret the guy has a huge ego. But the “took him so long” thing – it’s like Favre just wants to give us all reasons to dislike him as much as possible. And hey, as people who need to write about potentially controversial sports stuff – hey, bring it on, Brett. But we’d understand if, say, Aaron Rodgers was less thrilled. The guy is playing better football than pretty much anyone on the planet, and for that, he deserves his due. Audio of Favre’s comments below.

Photo via susanshan.com