Aaron Rodgers gives firm opinion on sign stealing, Michigan allegations

Aaron Rodgers chalked up sign stealing to be part of the game of football, just like a lot of football figure heads lately.

In the wake of the Michigan sign stealing allegations, Rodgers commented on the process, the rules at the college level and whether or not it’s that big of a competitive advantage. From Rodgers’ perspective, there’s a lot that goes into competitive advantage, more than just sign stealing.

In his weekly spot on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers broke it all down.

“I was in the old system in the old NFL before there was a headset, microphone and the defensive headset, so stealing the signals was always a part of what was going on,” Rodgers said. “And there were certain guys over the years who had had that as a responsibility … (In college) I didn’t realize that you weren’t allowed to do advanced scouting, sending guys to another place to scout on them. I find that very interesting … 

“I think that there is, you know, one thing to think about is number one, you have to get the signal, right? You have to see a signal. In college, it seems like there’s four or five guys sitting there … I would assume that a team would want to, you know, be careful and have multiple guys signaling … So there’s a lot that goes on … It’s not just this blanket like, oh my god, they got the signal, what a great advantage that is.” 

Rodgers explained the execution part of the play and making sure everyone’s assignments are done correctly. If that’s done, then sure, you can take advantage of knowing the signal beforehand.

But things change on the fly, so Rodgers, for example, knowing the defensive signals is not the end all be all.

As far as Michigan is concerned, Rodgers did not name the Wolverines. Although he mentioned how college has different rules and that the allegations seem vast by comparison to just sign stealing.

“So I think it’s a little more intricate than just like, oh my gosh, what a scandal,” Rodgers said. “Now in college football with the rules and I read the article yesterday with how many different games this person was going to and they were sitting on one side and the other side. It seems like there was some sort of elaborate scheme that was going on. But you still got to execute it.”

Rodgers didn’t say it was cheating or not cheating, but it’s certainly something to investigate.

“I’m not saying it’s not (cheating), there’s some questionable ethical things about it for sure,” Rodgers said. “But you still gotta go out and execute and be able to react in the moment as they are in this formation, which means you’re gonna run this and, you know, and then hope that they’re gonna do any sort of adjustments to that specific play. 

“So there’s a lot that goes in, it’s not just so cut and dry. Like, cheater. They know every play. That’s why they stopped and it’s like, well, just there’s a little bit more to it than just that.”