Before future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers signed with the Steelers, former Steelers quarterback (and Hall of Famer) Terry Bradshaw called the move “a joke.”
“What are you gonna do?” Bradshaw said. “Bring him in for one year? Are you kidding me? . . . . That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there.”
Rodgers responded on Saturday, in an appearance on NFL Network with Kyle Brandt.
“I whisper to the gods every single day,” Rodgers told Brandt, via Reice Shipley of AwfulAnnouncing.com. “I’ve known Terry for a long time, being a part of Fox. Terry’s a legend. He’s an absolute legend. He won four Super Bowls. He’s had a legendary career in the media. But Terry, like a lot of people, doesn’t know me. And so he’s got an idea of what he thinks about me based on what I’ve done, the documentary, what I’ve said, darkness retreat, whatever the hell you want to talk about. I’d love to get to know Terry on a deeper level. I feel like if he gave me a chance to get to know him, then we’d have a good friendship.
“For me, I have nothing but the utmost amount of respect and deference for what the greats have done. Because they laid the foundation for us to be able to play in this great game. To be paid like kings, and to carry on the tradition of excellence that guys like the Bradshaws of the world in the ’70s and Bart Starr in the ’60s and Lombardi and Joe Montana, and Steve Young, and Troy Aikman, and Brett Favre, and all the greats.
“We’re standing on the backs of those guys. It’s because of how they played and how they carried themselves that we’re able to have this opportunity to still play this great game, to get paid really well, to set ourselves up for our future. So I’d love to get to know Terry on a deeper level if he’s open to it. And maybe we can go chew some bark or whatever the hell he’s talking about together.”
Rodgers handled it well. The ball is now in Terry’s court. Or the bark.