PACKER REPORT: AR Breaks Collarbone As Pack Loses To Vikes 23 -10! — Season Likely Over For One Of NFL’s Brightest Stars!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/10/15/the_nfl_just_lost_its_best_and_most_exciting_player.html

Nick Greene reports for Slate:

“Oh No, Aaron Rodgers Broke His Collarbone

Green-Bay-Packers-v-Minnesota-Vikings
Aaron Rodgers rides a cart into the locker room after being injured.

Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

The 2017-’18 NFL season is objectively worse right now than it was on Sunday morning. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, and, for the foreseeable future, the league’s best player will be spending his Sundays watching games rather than playing in them.

The injury occurred in the the first quarter of Green Bay’s game against Minnesota. Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr tackled Rodgers to the turf, and the quarterback crumpled awkwardly on his arm and shoulder. (It’s a bit of frustrating irony that Rodgers’ offensive line on Sunday was in the best shapeit’s been in all year.)

After Rodgers was carted to the locker room for tests, Brett Hundley replaced him under center. Hundley is a promising young player, but, unfortunately for the Packers, he is one of the roughly 7 billion people on earth who is not Aaron Rodgers, meaning he will represent a downgrade at the quarterback position. With Rodgers, the Packers are a consistent threat to challenge for the Super Bowl. Without him … well, we’re about to find out.

Rodgers had been enjoying a terrific season, leading the Packers to a 4-1 record atop the NFC North. Just last weekend he performed his customary late-game vivisection of the Dallas Cowboys, which was exhilarating at the time but rather irritating in retrospect as it perfectly encapulates what fans will be missing due to his broken collarbone.

In 2013, Rodgers suffered a similar injury when he fractured his left clavicle in week nine. However, he was able to recover in time for the last game of that season, an affair in which he threw a last-gasp, game-winning touchdown to win the NFC North for the Packers and usher them into the playoffs. It was a miraculous performance that Green Bay fans will be careful not to label “once-in-a-lifetime” just yet.

Football carries more potential energy per play than any other sport. You never know when a routine tackle will result in something devastating, but the possibility is always there. While these high stakes may make the sport exciting, they can also conspire to result in the exact opposite outcome. Aaron Rodgers’ broken collarbone is an example of this, and the league will suffer as a result.

Nick Greene is a Chicago-born writer who currently lives in Oakland, California. Follow him on Twitter.”

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Pack backup QB Brett Hundley didn’t “knock anyone’s socks off” in the first “real action” of his career.  He was 18-33, 157 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT.  Not going to win many games with stats like those. But, perhaps, with knowledge that he’ll be starting and time to practice with the starters, he’ll do better next time out.  We can only hope.

Some folks (including me) think that Packer General Manager Ted Thompson would do well to ring up CBS Broadcaster Tony Romo (Wisconsin native) and/or notorious former 49er Colin Kaepernick (also a Wisconsin native).

The Pack (4-2), carrying lots of injuries in addition to Rodgers, are now tied with the Vikes atop the NFC Central (although the Vikes now own the “tiebreaker”). They play the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau next Sunday.

PWS

10-15-17