If Brett Favre feels threatened by Aaron Rodgers' success in Green Bay, he shouldn't. Despite the constant questions about Favre, Rodgers is honored to be linked to the legendary quarterback.
"I think on some level, you need to embrace the fact that you're mentioned with a future Hall of Famer. ... And I'm always going to be the guy that followed him, regardless of what happens," Rodgers told NFL Network's Michael Irvin in an interview that aired Sunday on "NFL GameDay Morning."
"I'm hopeful that we can go down in a similar sense and the way that Joe Montana and Steve Young are talked about (in winning Super Bowls for the San Francisco 49ers)," Rodgers added. "You know, two guys who are very good quarterbacks. It's rare that a guy follows a guy like I did and has been able to have some success. And we've had some for now. But I'm hopeful that I'm going to have a long career here and an opportunity to win a lot more championships."
Rodgers didn't strike back at Favre's recent comment that Favre was surprised it took his former backup three years to win a Super Bowl (it took Favre five years). That's because Rodgers has bigger fish to fry -- like winning back-to-back Super Bowls -- although he said the Packers aren't using the "R" word.
"We didn't come in here and say, 'Hey, we're repeating,'Â " Rodgers said. "We came in here saying our goal is to win the Super Bowl.
"Last year was last year. I think you realize, from my first year on, that every year is unique to that year itself. It's a different team, different motivational factors, different guys, different attitudes, you know? You have so many different components that go into a season. Guys who are trying to get paid and guys who just got paid. Young guys trying to figure it out, older guys trying to hold on. There's just so many components that go into the makeup of your team.
"As a leader, it's kind of your job to make sure everything is running smoothly. And if you can do that and get hot at the right time, then you can win the Super Bowl."
No one would know more about getting hot at the right time than Rodgers, who famously was passed up in the 2005 NFL Draft before the Packers chose him 24th overall.
Rodgers currently is the NFL's all-time leader in passer rating, at 100.5, boosted by this season's mind-blowing 124.6 through four games. His 73.0 completion percentage threatens Drew Brees' single-season record of 70.62, set in 2009.
But wait, it gets better. In the playoffs -- against the best defenses the NFL has to offer and when the stakes are at their highest -- Rodgers' passer rating actually goes up to 112.6.
"If it was necessary and we needed it to be ready for the season, then we would have done it," Rodgers told Irvin.
"It wasn't like we didn't talk about it, or that people didn't get together, because people got together in different groups. But I talked to Charles (Woodson), who's our defensive captain, and talked to (coach) Mike (McCarthy) at the ring ceremony, and just felt like unless we started to miss some serious training camp, then it wasn't something we needed to get ready."
That might sound cocky, but Rodgers seems to know that only an abundance of arrogance -- or perhaps a key injury -- can slow down Green Bay.
"As good as it feels right now to be 4-0 and have everybody telling us how good we are, there's going to come a time when we'll lose a game or have some sort of distraction or something come up and then, you know, we're the worst team and the biggest disappointment," he said. "You just have to take the good with the bad and just realize it's an ebb and flow in this league."
