Matt LaFleur Would Like You to Stop Asking About Aaron Rodgers and Audibles

Matt LaFleur seems like he’s had just about enough. The Green Bay Packers head coach appeared to lose it a bit on Tuesday when a reporter asked him about Aaron Rodgers’ freedom to audible in the team’s offense.

Matt Schneidman of The Athletic noted the exchange:

Of course, this all started because Rodgers and LaFleur let it leak that they weren’t agreeing on the issue of audibles. Here’s what the first-year head coach said in June:

“Aaron and I have had some good talks, and we’re going to have to talk a lot more — and one thing we have to work through is the audible thing. We’re running a system I first picked up while working with Kyle (Shanahan) in Houston a decade ago, and we’ve never really had a quarterback who’s had complete freedom to change plays at the line, because that’s not really the way the offense is set up. But, I mean, this is Aaron Rodgers. He’s had a lot of freedom to make those calls, and deservedly so. Now, how do we reconcile that, and get to a place where we put him in the best position to succeed?”

By putting that out in public, LaFleur is the one who started all this. Here’s how Rodgers responded to those comments:

“It’s a conversation in progress.I don’t think you want to ask me to turn off 11 years (of recognizing defenses). We have a number of ‘check with mes’ and line-of-scrimmage stuff. It’s just the other stuff that really not many people in this league can do. That’s not like a humble brag or anything; that’s just a fact. There aren’t many people that can do at the line of scrimmage what I’ve done over the years. I mean, obviously, Tommy (Brady) can do it, no doubt. Peyton (Manning) could do it. Drew (Brees) can do it. (Patrick) Mahomes will be able to do it. Ben (Roethlisberger) has called the two-minute for years. There are a few of us who’ve just done it. It’s kind of second nature. And that’s just the icing on the cake for what I can do in this offense.”

How can LaFleur be mad the media is asking about this, when it’s been a clear issue for both coach and player all offseason?

LaFleur is 39 and a first-year head coach. This is just plain old immaturity from him. As a head coach you have to be better at dealing with the media and not getting frustrated, especially when you’re the one to blame for the mess they’re asking you about.