Green Bay Packers Notebook: Was Sunday the Wake-Up Call Aaron Rodgers Needed?

In the National Football League, toughness is treasured and praised. It's one of the most violent sports out there, and if you lack a certain amount of "toughness," you're not going to last very long.

However, is there a point where football players walk the fine line of being tough and stupid?

If you're talking about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, it's a line he's walked all season. And finally last Sunday, he paid the price for it.

After scrambling for 18 yards, Rodgers was sandwiched by a pair of Lions defenders, and his helmet bounced off the Ford Field turf.

The resulting concussion from that hit has left Rodgers' availability for Sunday's game in New England in question, but should it have been avoided?

Absolutely.

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No one is going to fault Rodgers for taking off and running at times on the field. With our lack of running game and a shaky offensive line, sometimes he doesn't have a choice. And to be perfectly frank, Rodgers and his running ability have saved the offense a bunch of times this season.

But why has it become so hard for Rodgers to simply use the quarterback slide?

I don't buy the arguments that "He's just fighting for yards" and "You can't blame a football player for trying to get more." Sorry, those are things you want your running backs and receivers doing, not your franchise quarterback.

Especially a franchise quarterback that has already broken a foot, roughed up a shoulder and banged around his brain more than anyone would like.

I also don't care about two separate slides this season where Rodgers was marked short of first downs. He's got to understand the rule: You are down where you begin your slide. No questions.

It's a smart rule, and Rodgers has no one to blame but himself if he comes up short on slides. Even still, was there anyone who was upset that Rodgers slid down and we had to punt those two times?

At least he wasn't clearly dazed and woozy while being helped off the turf like he was on Sunday.

Even more on that point, Rodgers had clearly picked up the first down. It's not like this was 3rd-and-20 and Rodgers was fighting to move the sticks. He had 18 yards on a play where only eight were needed to get the first down.

That goes right along with his failed slides: You must know where you are on the field at all times. Rodgers has struggled with that.

Look, by no means am I trying to say he should stop running. Rodgers is probably the best scrambling quarterback out there if you take Michael Vick out of the equation.

But he's arguably been one of the dumbest as well. He's been quoted saying that he's been chewed out by the coaching staff numerous times for not sliding. Obviously, he hasn't gotten the hint.

Maybe Sunday will be the wake-up call he needs. At the very least, he'll have a better idea of the type of danger he's been exposing himself to.

Because, in reality, the whole concept of sliding is in place so quarterbacks don't get hurt like Rodgers did. He'd do well to buy in to that concept not only this season, but the rest of his career.

That way, Sunday should hopefully mark the last time we see our franchise quarterback injured as a direct result of failing to slide.

More Hurting Packers Defenders

It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but it's more than likely that two more players on the Packers defense will miss Sunday's game in New England.

Defensive end Cullen Jenkins, who also missed last Sunday's game in Detroit, is almost certainly out. His injured right calf has become a lingering problem, and there's a good possibility that he'll be put on injured reserve if the team feels the injury isn't healing to plan.

His loss was felt on Sunday, as the Lions had no problems rushing for 190 yards on the Packers defense. The drop-off from Jenkins to backups Jarius Wynn and C.J. Wilson clearly is a steep one.

Joining him on the injured list is linebacker Frank Zombo, whose four sacks this season put him third on the team behind Clay Matthews (12.5) and Jenkins (seven).

Zombo injured his knee in Detroit, and coach Mike McCarthy said that he was going to be "challenged" to make it back this week.

That means that Erik Walden would be the Packers starting outsider linebacker on Sunday if Zombo can't go. It would mark Walden's first career NFL start.

Not quite the fearsome pass rushing force you want starting the week the Packers face the NFL's hottest offense.

Two Champions into the Packers Hall of Fame

For all the negative press going around this week about the Green Bay Packers, Tuesday's announcement that both William Henderson and Marco Rivera will enter the franchise's Hall of Fame was welcoming news.

At the very least, it was a reminder of better times in Green Bay.

Henderson and Rivera were both part of the Super Bowl XXXI winning Packers team, a team that coincidentally beat the New England Patriots.

Henderson spent 12 seasons in Green Bay, and somehow only went to one Pro Bowl. In my estimation, Henderson was among the best fullbacks in the NFL during that time period of '95-'06.

Henderson will always be one of the last of a dying breed. The fullback position is slowly but surely being schemed out of NFL offenses, and even fewer are the receiving threat that Henderson was.

Rivera was drafted a year after Henderson in 1996, and stayed in Green Bay until 2004. Many will remember him as one of the Packers that new GM Ted Thompson let go in that offseason, but Rivera also made three Pro Bowls as a Packer.

Congratulations to both.