Getty Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers reacts after an incomplete pass on a fourth down play during the fourth quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lambeau Field on October 03, 2021 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Former Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz sounds a little worked up about the “disrespect” Aaron Rodgers showed the city of Chicago last weekend.
Rodgers caught some attention over the weekend after scoring a win-sealing rushing touchdown for the Green Bay Packers and shouting “I still own you” at the Bears home crowd in Soldier Field in celebration, something he later admitted was not planned and was done in response to a woman allegedly giving him the “double bird” in the front row.
Kreutz then responded to Rodgers’ taunts the next day during the Mully and Haugh Show on 670 the Score, telling the Chicago-based sports hosts that he “like to punch him in his face” for what he said. The back and forth could have ended there, but Rodgers further addressed the negative reaction to his celebration during his weekly Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show when he laughed off Kreutz’s response and questioned whether society has gotten too “soft.”
“Are we getting that soft as a society that we can’t have a back and forth now?” Rodgers told McAfee after earlier being critical of ‘politically correct’ and ‘woke’ culture. “Somebody can pay for a ticket and say whatever the hell they want, which I think they should be able to, that’s fine, but the one time you say something back to them, that gets caught on hot mic … Now it’s that I’ve disrespected an entire city and organization and my own organization.”
Naturally, Chicago media couldn’t leave it alone …
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Kreutz Critical of Rodgers Not Owning Words
You’ve got to hand it to the people at 670 the Score; they know how to keep stirring the pot after heated matchups between the Bears and the Packers.
It took just a few hours for Kreutz to hop back on the airwaves after Rodgers made his comments on The Pat McAfee Show” and while he acknowledged that he didn’t believe Rodgers was directly calling him soft with his comments, the six-time Pro Bowler did take issue with the contradictory nature of Rodgers blasting “woke culture.”
Here’s what Kreutz said:
We are having a back and forth, Aaron. That’s why I said what I said. You said what you said, and you did disrespect and offend a whole city. If you’re going to talk about being politically correct and the woke culture, then don’t apologize. Don’t make up this story that you blacked out after some lady flipped you off. Just say, ‘Hey look, I am 22-5, I do feel like I own the Chicago Bears.’ And we could respect you more if you just come out and say that. Instead, you go and you make a million excuses and then you go on The Pat McAfee Show and you sound like you’re Brandon Staley or the Dalai Lama, whoever you are and talk about the woke culture and the PC crowd and all this stuff and that you’re above the game. I couldn’t even make sense of the interview. I only listened to it because he mentioned my name, which I appreciate for mentioning me on The Pat McAfee Show. But when asked how would you feel about someone screaming that at you guys that he owns you — and really it was, ‘I own you, mother f’ers — my response is if someone yells that in my face, I would probably like to punch them in my face.
Kreutz & Rodgers Still Respect Each Other
Now, it is important to note that there is mutual appreciation between Kreutz and Rodgers. The Packers veteran quarterback told McAfee that he respects Kreutz at the first mention of the former Bears center, while Kreutz made clear on 670 the Score that he feels Rodgers’ legacy against Chicago is too impressive to deny.
“Obviously, nobody acts like Aaron Rodgers is not a good football player,” Kreutz said. “No one acts like they don’t respect Aaron Rodgers as a football player and his skills on the field.”
And no, Kreutz isn’t actually planning to punch Rodgers if they happened to cross paths at the next matchup between the Bears and Packers, but he did warn that it could possibly go there if Rodgers ever tried throwing the “I own you” talk directly in his face.
“If you going to walk in people’s faces and yell, ‘I own you, mother f’er,’ then I would suggest having your hands up,” Kreutz said.