The Lombardi Trophy Returns Home

If Aaron Rodgers was on cloud nine yesterday evening then Brett Favre must have been the saddest guy in America.  Brett's known more for his text messaging ability these days than his football ability while Aaron Rodgers has accomplished something that Brett Favre never did - winning a Super Bowl MVP award. Aaron Rodgers stepped up on the world's biggest  stage and acted as if he always belonged there.  Meanwhile, Big Ben played small in the first half, and couldn't conjure up any magic on the game's final drive.  In some respects, the game had a fitting ending. as Rodgers got to hoist the Lombardi trophy and be celebrated as one of the game's elite passers after spending three humble years sitting on the sidelines in the shadow of Favre. Rodgers is respectful, a student of the game, a hard worker, and beloved by his teammates. In short, he is everything that Ben Roethlisberger is not.  Heck, Ben could not even play nice with the greatest quarterback in the history of the Steelers. He got into public spats with Terry Bradshaw over his off the field issues ranging from his motorcycle accident to his sexual assault incident.

Despite all the drama surrounding Roethlisberger this season and the week leading up to Super Bowl, he actually settled down nicely after his early two picks and played a decent game. But, Aaron Rodgers was great throughout the game, and Mike McCarthy was going to win or lose with the ball in the hands of his best player.  The Packers had only thirteen handoffs in the entire game, which might be plausible if they were down double digits early, but they were the team that jumped out to the early 21-3 lead.  After getting out of the gate early, Mike McCarthy never took his foot off the the throttle.  With Green Bay up 28-25 in the fourth quarter and starting their drive with slightly more than seven minutes on the clock, McCarthy choose to run the ball only twice out of nine plays to eat up the clock. He played to win the game, as Herm Edwards would say, and it paid off.  Fortunately, Aaron Rosgers, unlike Brett Favre, does not make many mistakes.