For Rodgers and Cobb, Now’s the Time to Cement Their Legends
GREEN BAY, Wis. – This is why Aaron Rodgers returned. It’s why Randall Cobb came back.
The playoffs are here. Starting with Saturday night’s NFC divisional-round playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers are three wins from their elusive second Super Bowl championship of the Rodgers era.
Three wins.
Legacies are built throughout a career. Rodgers will go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Cobb will go down as one of the great receivers in Packers history. But legends are born in the playoffs. Legends will be born during 60 bone-chilling minutes on Saturday. They’ll be born during a potential NFC Championship Game. And they’ll be born during a Super Bowl that has remained frustratingly out of reach for more than a decade.
Tom Brady has won seven Super Bowls to set an impossibly high bar that perhaps no quarterback will ever be able to surpass. Is he a better quarterback than Rodgers? Who knows, and it doesn’t matter. The ring is the thing. It’s always been the thing.
Of course, there are circumstances. Rodgers didn’t allow 51 points at Arizona in 2009. He didn’t give up the Hail Mary at the end of the first half that doomed the Packers in a 37-20 loss to the Giants in 2011. He wasn’t the one who was befuddled by Colin Kaepernick in a 45-31 loss at the 49ers in 2012. He didn’t miss any tackles on Larry Fitzgerald’s legendary 75-yard catch that sent the Packers home in 2015. He didn’t give up 44 points at Atlanta in the 2016 NFC Championship Game or 37 points at San Francisco in 2019 NFC Championship Game.
But that’s what legends do, right? Legends find a way. Rodgers hasn’t found a way often enough.
This week, Rodgers pointed to something other than playoff success when asked about his legacy. Six Super Bowl titles behind Brady, what else was he supposed to do?
“I think success is often based, for quarterbacks, on championships won,” Rodgers said on Tuesday. “I think success, individually, is much more than that and failure, on the flip side of that, failure, in my opinion, shouldn’t be based solely on your losses and your failures, your mistakes, your low points. It’s so much more than that. It’s mind-set. It’s an approach.”
Rodgers is right about that. It’s great life advice to focus on success and achievements and not shortcomings and failures. Still, with one Super Bowl win, he's Drew Brees. He's Nick Foles. He's Russell Wilson. Winning a second would be a big deal.
“It’s the total package, but I understand that in our business, so much of it is focused on the wins and losses, especially in the playoffs, Super Bowl rings and all that stuff,” Rodgers continued. “I understand that’s part of my legacy I’ll be judged on when I’m done playing, and every year is important when it comes to furthering your legacy. But I take a lot of pride in the success that we’ve had and that I’ve had, and I hope we can add to it both from a how we’re judged standpoint and how we judge ourselves standpoint.”
At the start of training camp – at the start of what could be his last Packers training camp – Rodgers persuaded general manager Brian Gutekunst to acquire Cobb from Houston. At this point in his career, Cobb isn’t what he was but he’s been what Rodgers needed. He battled back from core-muscle surgery in remarkable fashion to get back on the field for that push to the Super Bowl.
Of course, a receiver’s legacy isn’t tied so much to wins and losses. But for Cobb, returning to Green Bay was a way to add that missing piece to his Packers resume.
“Just looking at the journey, it would mean everything,” Cobb said this week. “Just being able to come back, it would definitely be a storybook ending for this year. Everything that has happened through the course of the season, for us to have so many guys that we lost, including myself throughout the season. Me getting traded back here and being a part of it. Last year [in Houston], I was watching. The past two years [in Dallas in 2019], I’ve been watching the playoffs from the couch. The past four years, I’ve been watching the playoffs from the couch. I haven’t seen the playoffs since 2016, so I’m really excited for the opportunity to be out there and help contribute.”
The couch is not a comfortable place for Cobb. He is driven by a desire to cement his green-and-gold legend with a Super Bowl ring. As a rookie in 2011, the Packers went 15-1 and lost to the Giants. In 2014, the Packers collapsed in the NFC Championship Game in 2014. In 2016, what was left of the injury-destroyed Packers got crushed at Atlanta. In 2017, Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone. In 2018, the Packers were broken under Mike McCarthy.
In 2019, the Packers let him sign with Dallas. Under first-year coach Matt LaFleur, Green Bay advanced to the NFC Championship Game. It was a bitter outcome for the Packers and a bitter day for Cobb.
“I wish my wife was here to answer the question because I remember the day of that game, I couldn’t talk,” he said. “I didn’t want to be around anybody. I was sitting in a room by myself; I wouldn’t even let her watch the game with me. I went into a room by myself and watched the game. It was a dark place. I was actually really worried about myself mentally because I just didn’t know. I really thought like, ‘Dang, I must really be the problem. It must’ve really been me.’ For me to be on the team for eight years and they win the Super Bowl the year before, we have some success during my career and then they are getting ready to go to the Super Bowl the year after I leave, that was heavy. That was heavy for me to deal with.”
Due in part to noteworthy performances by Cobb against the Steelers, Cardinals and Rams, due in part to Davante Adams’ weekly dominance, due in part to the surprise brilliance of De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas, the Packers finished 13-4 to earn the No. 1 seed.
So, Rodgers has got another chance. A great chance. And maybe his last chance. It starts at home. The Packers are healthy. They’re at home. They’ve got their weather. There are no excuses.
The time is now to build legends.
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