Poor Aaron Rodgers!

I'm no Green Bay Packer fan.

And I save real sympathy for folks who are truly suffering. Generally speaking, the travails of being a professional athlete in America don't qualify for that rank.

But in that little corner of the brain reserved for emotions devoted to the trivialities of spectator sports, I've gotta feel some of the pain of Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

He was drafted late in the tenure of the most beloved Packer of a generation, Brett Favre. His mere presence was a prod to the team's faithful that time was running out for their active love affair with the former MVP and Super Bowl winning QB. Favre himself didn't seem to want that kind of prod: asked whether he would mentor the rookie who was clearly brought in to replace him somewhere down the line, Favre said that mentoring wasn't his job. Favre kept playing, Rodgers was the quiet understudy, and it was clear that that status would remain quo as long as Favre wanted it to.

Favre retired this offseason, apparently kicking off the Rodgers era. Then, even before training camp or any opportunity for Packer backers to miss him, Favre seemed to have second thoughts, commenting publicly that he'd consider unretiring if the Packers needed him because of a Rodgers injury. How Favre could fail to see the tackiness of that kind of comment is a mystery: the prospect will certainly cause at least some Packer fans to wish and hope for Rodgers to get hurt just enough for the Brett cavalry to come riding to the rescue, and at least a few of those folks will be expressing those wishes and hopes every time Rodgers is slow to get up from a sack. Rodgers is a big boy and has already been made a rich man to put up with just that kind of aggravation, but that doesn't excuse Favre's lack of professional courtesy in exposing him to an extra helping of it.

And as if that wasn't enough, the Packers went to the second round of this weekend's NFL draft and drafted another quarterback, Louisville's Brian Brohm. It's one thing for a team to start looking for your replacement when you're 35, and been on the job for 13 seasons, but it's something else altogether when you're 24 and haven't even been tried out for a full season yet. The Packers say they drafted Brohm to be a backup, but second round picks are generally too important to be spent on guys unless those guys are going to play. Brett Favre was a second round draft pick. So when Rodgers has an off play or two, and he doesn't look hurt enough for Favre to be called back to save the team, fans are gonna be thinking that they have a promising young QB standing on the sidelines who should be given a chance. Again, Rodgers is being well paid to endure ill wishes and fond hopes for other guys. I just imagine that it's no fun to be overshadowed by your predecessor, and while you're still living in that shadow, have to be overshadowed by your successor.

Maybe Prince Charles can send him an encouraging text message?