A notebook filled with Finley, Rodgers, Kramer and Sherman

M

Mark Eckel

Guest
BY ROB REISCHEL

Jermichael Finley is Green Bay’s finest tight end this century.

In just 70 career games, Finley caught 223 passes for 2,785 yards and 20 touchdowns. Then in Week 6 of 2013, he suffered a career-ending spinal cord injury after being leveled by Cleveland safety Tashaun Gipson.

Finley wore his heart on his sleeve and was often ulfiltered during his time in Green Bay. In the Packers’ straight-laced organization, that ruffled many feathers.

It’s also the No. 1 reason Finley believes the Packers want nothing to do with him in his post-football life.

“I don’t get one call,” Finley said during an appearance on the Bill Michaels Show during Super Bowl week. “It goes back to not kissing ass and not doing it the Green Bay way.

“What’s crazy is … from the blood, sweat and tears that I put on that field for the Green Bay Packers, I think there should be more love. It feels vice versa. The person that I am, I would for sure put my arms around a guy that’s for sure retiring at 27 … call and check on him every once in a while. But I’m telling you, haven’t got one call.”

Finley and quarterback Aaron Rodgers had the rockiest of relationships while he was in Green Bay.

Finley, a little-used rookie in 2008, was critical of a Rodgers’ throw during a loss at Tennessee in 2008. Things got much worse in 2012, when Finley didn’t feel he was being utilized enough in the passing game and put much of the blame on Rodgers.

“Me and 12 just ain’t been on,” Finley told me that season. “He’s had some guys come through this year and he’s gone to them instead of me. And really, it’s out of my hands at the end of the day. If I could throw myself the ball and run under it, I’d do it every play because he’s just not throwing me the ball like he used to. Both of us need to just go out, maybe have a drink or two and just spill everything.”

Shortly after those comments, Packers coach Mike McCarthy had Finley and Rodgers begin meeting every Saturday night.

“McCarthy came and said, ‘Hey, you two mother f—ers … you need to get together,” Finley told the radio show. “You all got to see eye to eye. And after that, we started clicking and started getting together.

“(Rodgers) is a good guy. At times he can get a little sensitive. We all know that. But as a player, he’s awesome. As a guy that at the end of my career, at the conclusion of it, we started to get tight, get closer.”

But Finley said since his career ended 4 ½ years ago, he’s been a forgotten man to the Packers.

No calls for Alumni weekend. No communication from his former head coach.

Crickets.

And that bothers him deeply.

“They want more like a straight laced, uptight type of guy,” Finley said of the Packers. “And I’m going to throw a type of guy they like, they like the John Kuhn’s. They like the guys like that that’s going to say the Green Bay type of stuff.

“During the course of your career, if you didn’t say or do the things that’s the ‘Green Bay Way,’ they don’t want no part of it. Now I think it’s bogus because I’m a player who’s going to bring that dog in there.

“I always felt like McCarthy was an advocate of Jermichael Finley because every time I saw the guy he was like, ‘You’re my guy.’ But after the game (has ended), where is he?”

Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood?: Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers continued his lengthy history of taking shots at head coach Mike McCarthy last week.

Rodgers told an ESPN morning show that many of the Packers’ coaching changes this offseason were “a little strange.”

“Well, my quarterback coach didn’t get retained,” Rodgers said, referring to Alex Van Pelt. “I thought that was an interesting change, really without consulting me.”

McCarthy, who has full control over his coaching staff, has often “blocked” his assistant coaches from pursuing other jobs. So Van Pelt elected to have his contract expire at the end of the 2017 season largely so he could seek a coordinator’s position.

Van Pelt wound up as Cincinnati’s quarterbacks coach. And Rodgers clearly ended up frustrated.

“There’s a close connection between quarterback and quarterback coach,” Rodgers said. “That was an interesting decision.”

Rodgers and McCarthy have certainly had their share of battles through the years.

In 2013, the two men had a heated sideline argument during an eventual loss in Cincinnati. Rodgers got in McCarthy’s face about a play call, the head coach barked back and the quarterback retreated.

After a home loss to Indianapolis in 2016, Rodgers took a passive-aggressive shot at McCarthy about Green Bay’s energy level.

“We started off with uncharacteristically low energy for whatever reason, and then didn’t really respond well,” Rodgers said.

The following day, McCarthy said: “After really reviewing the video, I actually thought the energy was pretty good.”

During the Packers’ overtime win over Cincinnati in 2017, television cameras picked up Rodgers yelling, “Stupid F—ing call” at McCarthy.

Now comes Rodgers’ frustration over the Van Pelt move. The bigger question, though, is should Rodgers have any input over the roster or the coaching staff?

Brett Favre lobbied for that type of control late in his career and was rebuffed. And to date, Rodgers has been given no input into coaching or personnel decisions.

The problem for McCarthy is he fully understands the Packers need Rodgers far more than they need him. And if Rodgers keeps firing shots in McCarthy’s direction, there’s not a lot he can do.

Since 2013, Rodgers has missed 16 starts due to a pair of broken collarbones. Green Bay is 5-10-1 in those games (.344) — including a 3-6 mark in 2017 under the direction of Brett Hundley. When you include the games where Rodgers was injured — both losses — the Packers are 5-12-1 without their quarterback (.306).

It’s highly unlikely the Packers would ever trade their two-time MVP quarterback. Instead, they’d love to extend his contract, which ends after the 2019 season.

But Rodgers showed once again last week he isn’t happy. Just how the Packers react will be extremely interesting.

The Hall calls: On Dec. 31, 1967, Packers guard Jerry Kramer made arguably the most memorable block in NFL history. During Green Bay’s 21-17 win over Dallas in the NFL Championship — a game known today as the Ice Bowl — Kramer delivered the key block on quarterback Bart Starr’s game-winning touchdown.

Fifty years and 34 days later, Kramer’s dreams of reaching the Pro Football Hall of Fame became reality.

Kramer was named to the Hall as a senior candidate. The 82-year-old Kramer had been a finalist 10 other times — the last time coming in 1997 — but had fallen short each time.

“I was over the top. It was something I was afraid to believe in, I was afraid to hope for,” Kramer said. “I kept trying to keep those emotions out there somewhere. But, hey, I’m here and I’m part of the group.”

The rest of the 2018 class included contributor Bobby Beathard, linebacker Robert Brazile, safety Brian Dawkins, linebacker Ray Lewis, wide receiver Randy Moss, wide receiver Terrell Owens and linebacker Brian Urlacher. Kramer became the 25th member of the Packers to be elected to the Hall.

The 6-foot-3 Kramer played guard for 11 years in Green Bay (1958-’68) at just 245 pounds. Kramer was named All-NFL five times and was selected to three Pro Bowls. Kramer was also named to NFL’s 50th Anniversary Team, the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1960s and the Super Bowl Silver Anniversary Team.

Kramer was a huge part of the Packers winning five championships in seven years between 1961-’67. But until now he never could get over the Hall of Fame hump.

A candidate needs at least 80% of the vote to be selected and this time the 48-person panel felt Kramer was worthy.

“It’s the ultimate honor in our game,” Kramer said. “It’s the top of the heap. If you make it here, you’ve made it in professional football. So whenever you’ve made it here, it’s a wonderful moment and a wonderful time and a wonderful event.”

The lighter side: Former Packers coach and later general manager Mike Sherman was seen by most as one of the greater curmudgeons to pass through Green Bay in recent years. But while making the rounds on radio row this week, Sherman recounted an amusing tale from his time with the Packers.

“We usually won our home games, so after the home games, it takes me two hours to get out to the car,” Sherman said on the Bill Michaels Show. “And my two boys, Matt and Ben, would come with me. And we’d drive around that parking lot and then we’d stop at a tailgate party that hasn’t quite ended yet.

“And I’d pull up to them and roll the window down and say, ‘Hey, who won the game today?’ And you know the Packers fans two hours after the game, they’re not seeing straight, right? So they’re saying, ‘You dumb ass. Where’ve you been?’ So then all of a sudden they would focus in and say, ‘Hey coach. How you doing? Come on and have a beer.’ And I’d say, ‘No, I’ve got to go.’

“Then I’d go to the next one and I’d say, ‘Hey, I’m not cleaning this crap up. You guys better pick up these beer cans. I’m not picking them up after you guys.’ So we’d go around the parking lot and hit each little group like that and my sons had just a ball doing it and I enjoyed it as well. That was one of my best memories of being the Packer coach.”

The post A notebook filled with Finley, Rodgers, Kramer and Sherman appeared first on Bob McGinn Football.

Continue reading...
 
Great story by Sherman!
 
Alumni weekend you don't see the Packers bring back recent players. I don't know if Finley knows that or not but you don't see guys like DD up there either. I don't think it's anything against Finley it's just Packers are more focused on the older Alumni then recent ones.
 
Finley was a lot like Dez Bryant in Dallas. Talent, but a mouth that was bigger. The way he handled himself early on has a lot to do with his relationship with the organization, and fans. He could be a dick. He was almost childish until his trip to intensive care.

I'm not saying he was a bad guy, but he put his personal agenda ahead of the team quite often, and had a higher opinion of himself, than what his talent actually was.

As for his rank at TE, I don't think he's even close to being the best the Packers ever had. I'll list just a few that I think were a heck of a lot better. Not in specific order, but a lot better than Finley.

Mark Chmura, Paul Coffman, Rich McGeorge, Marv Fleming, and Ron Kramer. I can add several more to the list, but why bother.

Finley's attitude on the issue of not being invited fits right in to his early years, when he would think of only himself.
 
As for his rank at TE, I don't think he's even close to being the best the Packers ever had. I'll list just a few that I think were a heck of a lot better. Not in specific order, but a lot better than Finley.

Mark Chmura, Paul Coffman, Rich McGeorge, Marv Fleming, and Ron Kramer. I can add several more to the list, but why bother.

First, just to be fair, the article didn't say he was the best ever, just the best this century.

However, while the others you mentioned were near and dear during their stints, I don't see that any of them had the effect that Finley did at the position, or, because of his relatively short career, perhaps I should say demonstrated that he would have had. Not enough skin in the game to go through lining up the stats and whatever else would go into it, but I'm pretty sure most would agree that he was a major force at TE.
 
First, just to be fair, the article didn't say he was the best ever, just the best this century.

However, while the others you mentioned were near and dear during their stints, I don't see that any of them had the effect that Finley did at the position, or, because of his relatively short career, perhaps I should say demonstrated that he would have had. Not enough skin in the game to go through lining up the stats and whatever else would go into it, but I'm pretty sure most would agree that he was a major force at TE.

Yup. Even if the stats didn't show it, he was able to draw S coverage away from the WR, which really opened things up for everyone else. Since Finley's retirement we saw this effect for precisely half a season with Jared Cook, and it's no co-incidence that that time period was GB "running the table" to a surprise berth in the NFCC when the O looked unstoppable. A TE with speed to attack the middle of the field is a MUST in this offense.
 
I didn't think about the "this century bit." But I do remember a lot of articles just like the one attached, and watching games week after week, where Finley had problems hanging onto the ball in clutch situations.

I still believe he wasn't nearly as good as some people would like to believe. There was a reason they didn't throw to him as much as he wanted. You gotta hang onto the ball.

Finley Drops the Ball

Three Years of Stats

There are a lot of articles, and stats, covering his years in Green Bay, and he only had two years that actually showed respectable production. He wasn't nearly as good as some people want to believe. But, everyone's entitled to their opinion.

The one thing I do agree on, is that he had the speed to draw a defensive back's coverage. Now, if he could have kept the ball in his hands, and had actually run the routes assigned (which he often failed to do), he could have been pretty good.
 
Back
Top