Matt LaFleur ‘speechless’ after Aaron Rodgers’ passionate defense of the Packers coach

Aaron Rodgers hasn’t lost his capacity to surprise, even after a playoff defeat that might have doubled as his NFL goodbye.

During a reflective postgame news conference after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 30-6 home loss to the Houston Texans Monday night, Rodgers was asked about Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who has never had a losing record in 19 seasons but has now lost seven straight playoff games. Rodgers, who has praised Tomlin frequently during their lone season together, did so again — but this time he not only stuck up for his current coach but for his former one: Matt LaFleur, who is under fire from Packers fans after Green Bay blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead in a first-round playoff defeat to the Bears Saturday night.

“I mean, this league has changed a lot in my 21 years,” Rodgers said. “You know, when you hear conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world. Those are just two that I played for. And when I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be conversations about whether those guys were on the hot seat, but the way that the league is covered now and the way that there’s snap decisions and the validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who you make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me that’s an absolute joke.

“And for either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and a league,” Rodgers continued, “because obviously Matt’s done a lot of great things in Green Bay and we had a lot of success. Mike T.’s had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19, 20 years. And more than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture’s right, you don’t think about making a change. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously that sways decisions from time to time. But that’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”

Given the way things ended for Rodgers in Titletown — and the tension between him and his head coach during their final season together, in 2022, as the Packers missed the playoffs for the first time during their partnership — LaFleur was both floored and touched that Rodgers stuck up for him so conspicuously.

“I’m speechless,” he said via text early Tuesday morning. “He didn’t have to do that, but he did. (It’s) one of the nicest compliments (of) my life. I’m so appreciative of him for that.”

LaFleur and Rodgers led the Packers to three straight 13-win seasons, which included two NFC Championship Game appearances, after LaFleur was hired in 2019. But they stumbled to an 8-9 record in 2022, Rodgers’ last season in Green Bay. The quarterback then spent two unsatisfying seasons with the New York Jets — the first lost entirely to injury — before enjoying a measure of redemption this season with the Steelers.

The Packers, meantime, replaced Rodgers with Jordan Love and earned the No. 7 seed in the NFC in all three seasons after Rodgers’ departure. But two straight first-round losses have raised questions about LaFleur’s future. He has one season remaining on his contract and Ed Policy, Green Bay’s team president and de facto owner who oversees the head coach and general manager, said last summer that he is generally opposed to either LaFleur or general manager Brian Gutekunst serving in their roles during a contract year.

Rodgers, 42, told “The Pat McAfee Show” this summer that he’s “pretty sure” 2025 will be his final season in the NFL. He spoke at length about his time in Green Bay before a Packers-Steelers meeting in October.

“I was there for 18 years,” Rodgers said. “Regardless of when I hang it up, that’s the bulk of my career. I’ll retire a Packer and see what happens after that. I’ve got a lot of love for the organization, my time there. They asked this week, ‘Is it a revenge game?’ or whatever. What do I got to be avenging here? They made me a ton of money. I grew up there, spent some of the best years of my life there. I’ve got nothing but love for the organization.

“Damn near everything great in my life is because of my football career, and my football career starts and will end one day with Green Bay. So I’ve got a lot of love for all those memories and a lot of great friends I still carry with me to this day.”

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