Minnesota Vikings head coach told Leslie Frazier recently told his new wide receiver Greg Jennings to stop talking about his old team, the Green Bay Packers, and focus on his new one. It seems Jennings may not have fully understood his coach’s request. He recently appeared on KFAN Sports Radio and said he was “brainwashed” by the Packers, according to KFAN.com.
"We do. We do. We really do. One of the things that obviously drew me to coming over here was the makeup of the team,” he said told Ben Leber, a former Vikings linebacker, when asked if the Vikings have the characteristics of a championship team. “And when I came over here, I was kinda brainwashed. There's no kinda to it. Being over in Green Bay you're brainwashed to think that anyone in the division is just tiers below. And so coming over here I meet the people within organization and I'm like, 'Wow, these are really great people.'"
And, Jennings wasn’t done.
"Everything that you know in Green Bay is like 'the best, the best, the best, the best, the best,’ and it's like total brainwashing. I think you don't open your eyes to see what other teams have to offer unless you are in that position, and I was afforded this position.”
Jennings previous comments were geared more to Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, rather than the team as a whole. He and Rodgers had an ongoing back-and-forth going this offseason, where Jennings would not say Rodgers name when referring to the Packers QB in interviews (instead calling him “number 12”), according to the Pioneer Press. Once when Rodgers was asked about Jennings by reporters he answered with the question, “Who?”
A couple weeks ago Frazier told the Pioneer Press Jennings needed “to focus on us.”
Jennings offered an apology through reporters last week, the Minneapolis-Star Tribune. “I don't really recall saying anything negative about Aaron or anyone over there, but hey, I apologize."
"Aaron's a phenomenal quarterback," Jennings added. "He knows that. No one needs to tell him that. What he's done over the course of the last five years? Phenomenal. He set the bar high for quarterbacks in this league. He set the bar high for offenses in this league. Everything I say is all out of fun. I'm just saying something just to say it. They know that's not me."
Although the Western Michigan product hasn’t said many nice things about Rodgers, ESPN.com reported he did offer some compliments about his former coach Mike McCarthy during the KFAN interview.
"You want the truth?" Jennings said. "[Packers head coach Mike] McCarthy, he really is mindful of, and this isn't saying Coach Frazier isn't, but McCarthy is one of those guys that he really looks at his team and he evaluates, 'OK, what do we need to cut back today, what do we need to implement today because I want a fresh team. I want to get quality work versus quantity.' And that's the biggest difference being a veteran guy and seeing what we are doing.”
Jennings also said that having running back Adrian Peterson, last year’s league MVP, helps the Vikings be multi-dimensional.
“Adrian was a huge draw," Jennings explained. "Knowing that you have a running back that's going to take a lot of pressure off the passing game -- not that I don't enjoy getting the ball -- but anytime you can have a one-two punch both in the passing game and in the running game, you're going to be a difficult team to defend."
