Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers doesn't plan to change his leadership style just because he received some criticism from a couple of former teammates this offseason.
On the first installment of his in-season weekly radio show on ESPN 540 in Milwaukee, Rodgers gave one of his most in-depth answers on the subject.
When asked whether the criticism from former Packers receivers Greg Jennings and Donald Driver made him consider changing his leadership style, Rodgers said: "Not at all; I don't feel like I need to."
"I feel like I'm going to continue to lead the way I've been leading, and I think guys respond very positively to that and appreciate my style of leadership," Rodgers said on his radio show. "There's a reason I'm on the leadership council. There's a reason I'm voted a captain. I stand by those things, and you learn all the time about leadership. It's a constant educational process to gather information about your teammates and try and find the best ways to inspire those guys and push those guys and get the most out of them.
"But I'm very confident in the way I lead. I think [coach] Mike [McCarthy] believes in my style of leadership, and I think the guys respond favorably to that. It's not going to change. I enjoy what I'm doing. I love my job. I love the game of football and put a lot into it and expect to get a lot out of it as well."
Jennings, who signed with the Minnesota Vikings in the offseason, first questioned Rodgers' leadership in a July interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"Don't get me wrong, '12' is a great person," Jennings said, referring to Rodgers by his uniform number. "But when you hear all positives, all positives, all positives all the time, it's hard for you to sit down when one of your teammates says, 'Man, come on, you've got to hold yourself accountable for this.' It's hard for someone to see that now because all they've heard is I'm doing it the right way. I'm perfect. In actuality, we all have flaws."
In August, Driver appeared on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" and tried to explain Jennings' comments.
"We've always said that the quarterback is the one that needs to take the pressure off everyone else," Driver said. "If a guy runs the wrong route, it's easy for the quarterback to say, 'Hey, I told him to run that route' than for the guy to be like, 'Well, I ran the wrong route.' Sometimes you ask Aaron to take the pressure off the guys so we won't look bad, but he didn't want to do that. He felt like if you did something bad, you do it.
"I think that's the difference. You want that leadership, and I think sometimes you may not feel like you got it. You have to earn that respect at the end of the day, and I think that's what Greg was probably referring to."
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