Aaron Rodgers had a remarkable outing against the Patriots as the 40-year-old led the team to a dominating win. What made it extra interesting was Rodgers’s crowning as the NFL’s ‘Most Annoying’ player.
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In a survey of 3000 football fans by Action Network, Rodgers received 27% of the votes for the ‘Most Annoying’ player tag, the only other player close to him was Travis Kelce with 17% of the votes. After the survey results were announced, Colin Cowherd was one of the first to take a dig at the quarterback’s popularity by saying: ‘I told you so.’
Former Pro Bowler Marcellus Wiley wasn’t happy with Cowherd’s comments and called him out for his ‘hypercriticism‘ of the Jets QB. While talking on his podcast, he blamed Colin for harboring a strong bias against Rodgers and claimed that the host never got over his first impression of the player:
“Once he was turned off by Aaron Rodgers. There was a moment where it was like ‘Aaron Rogers, anything he does please be hypercritical’ and that has festered to a point where all you’re doing now is collecting evidence to prove you’re right even when you’re wrong.”
Since the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning era, Cowherd has been one of the fiercest critics of Rodgers. He has claimed that the former Packers QB only ever played for the record books, to get a spot in the NFL GOAT debate alongside Brady and Manning.
He regularly blames Rodgers for playing it safe and putting his stats ahead of the team. And now he’s using the survey to target Rodgers again. Wiley believed that Cowherd had a major role in badmouthing the Jets QB and the survey result was a display of his soft power.
Cowherd manipulated fans against Rodgers?
In Wiley’s opinion, Colin played a big role in spreading doubts in the fans’ minds about Rodgers’ ability to perform well or work with his teammates. Wiley explained that the power of his voice and social platforms was a strong tool to build an ‘Anti-Rodgers’ narrative.
“I’m not blaming this on Colin Cowherd, I’m showing you the power of our words, the power of our voice, the power of our platform. If you want to move Millions whisper to one.”
He elaborated on how Cowherd talks only about selected statistics and uses out-of-context videos from the game to put Rodgers in a bad light. It’s common knowledge among the fans that Cowherd never liked Rodgers but blaming him for controlling the narrative is pushing too much.
In the past years, Rodgers has been the center of many public controversies from his 2023 season-ending injury to beef with Jimmy Kimmel to his Covid-19 controversy. Rodgers only has himself to thank for earning the NFL’s ‘Most Annoying’ title.
