1-on-1: Aaron Rodgers - August 8, 2025

Aaron Rodgers talks with Missi Matthews about training camp and more

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Aaron being here at Sant Fancicollege and Latrobe. What does
this experience been like for you.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'd say it's a bit of a throwback for me,
just because we did this same concept for fourteen years
in Green Bay. We stayed at Saint Norbert's Cross Town,
and it gives you the opportunity to actually really connect
with your teammates because there's nowhere to go, you know,
we're stuck here at the dorms. Just been really fun
where it's card playing or I'm not a gamer, but

(01:22):
you know, all these kids are are video gamer, so
just you know, getting to spend time with these guys
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Is there anything about a Stealers training camp, practice or
environment that surprises you?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Used to be harder than some of the camps I've
been in the past. Hadn't been a part of tackling
and practice for a long time, so that's been pretty cool.
I just like the professional environment, you know, it starts
with Mike and his expectations for the temple of practice
and professionalism. That's been really fun to see. It's been hot,
really hot, hotter than usual that I'm used to for

(01:55):
training camp, So that's a good you know, good stress
around our bodies. It's always fun to see kind of
how guys respond to that.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
You talked about wanting to be an expert in this
Arthur Smith offense. How exactly is the process? Can you
break down how you go about doing that? And where
do you feel like you are right now?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I think I'm pretty close. For me, it's what images
come into my mind when I break the huddle. For me,
I have a lot of offenses in my mind. I
got the old school West Coast offense from two thousand
and five, I got Mike sideration of it from two
thousand and six to twenty eighteen. That I got the
floora offense in twenty nineteen, and then the kind of
the hybrid that we did in twenty twenty to twenty

(02:32):
twenty two, and then I have Nate Hackett's version of
that twenty three and twenty four. Now I got Arthur
Smith's version. So the pictures are starting to crystallize a
little bit better as we get into the third week here.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
A lot of your new teammates have said that you're
very calm in the huddle. You can also crack a
joke at the same time, but you also have a
very high standard for the attention to detail. How do
you balance that and when did you become really good
at that?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
I think it's a learned trait for sure. It starts
with a mastery of the system. Then you can know
what everybody's doing every play. The game is played with reactions,
and so I don't want guys thinking out there. I
want guys to have a mastery of the system and
then to go out and use their god given ability
to react to what they see. So I just always
want the guys to be locked in at the same time.

(03:18):
You know, this is a kid's game, so we should
be having fun out here. We should be able to
crack some jokes and rib each other and stuff like that.
So just that's part of the getting to know your
teammates sport. Which guys you can you can get on
and tease about certain things. You know, some guys are
wired super tight. Those are the easiest.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Some guys are more loose, and so you got to
find find a way to connect to them and find
a way to have some sort of personal one on
one with every player in order to kind of build
that relationship.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Who's the easiest to get under their skins.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh, Zach, of course, Zach Frazer. I mean, Zach is
such a great player. I mean, he's going to have
a long career in the league. But he's wired real
type A and those are the easiest guys to get on.
But you know, the center has to be the mouthpiece
at the quarterback. I'm the mouthpiece of the coordinator, and
so we all got to be in sync. But we
also got to be enjoying ourselves and not taking everything

(04:09):
too seriously out there.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
We'll have to check back on that. How you've done
in terms of breakin.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I'm breaking, I'm breaking.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Coach Arth had said that you prefer a paper playbook
in terms of a binder. Is that still the case.
Is anybody else following suit or are you getting any
comments or questions about that.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I'm from the analog days. The most of the younger players,
I won't say kids again, but younger players they grow
up on iPads, so it's second nature. And the iPads
are great. You can write notes in there and everything,
but I just always like having multiple ways to remember things,
so I can see it on the board. That's one.

(04:48):
I can see it on the paper in front of me.
That's two, and then I write it that's three. This
is kind of how I was raising the game. You know,
my notebooks always open. When Mike T's saying something in
a meeting, I'm writing writing down. You know, when Arthur's
saying something, I'm writing it down. You know when coach
Arthur is saying something, you know, I'm writing that down.
It's just this is how I was raised in the game.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
In terms of Darius Slay, he said when he was
a young player, he started to gain confidence because of
his interactions with you after the Green Bay Lions games.
What do you remember about him then? What did you
see in him? And what is it like being his
teammate now?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, Darius has always been an elite player. He's
always had elite ball skills and always a guy you
really had to be aware of where he was at.
And you know, when you when you bring in veteran
guys like this who are true professionals, you don't have
to worry about the standard being set. And we've you know,
brought in guys on offense, brought on even more guys

(05:42):
on defense, and when you have those veteran guys who
know what it's like to play and play at a
high level. They just set the standard for practice, set
the standard for the meeting room, set the standard for
the interactions, and makes my job as you know, want
to be team leader, you know that much easier