Paying your Dues

Everywhere I go, I hear people say that Aaron Rodges has "paid his dues".

"He's paid his dues, put in the time, and been a good sport through it all" - www.sportsdatahub.com

"He has paid his dues, he has done what has been asked of him, and he has earned his keep." - bleacherreport.com

"He's certainly paid his dues...He hasn't had a chance." - Packer's Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin www.jsonline.com

(In fact, searching Google for "Aaron Rodgers" "paid his dues", returns over 200 hits.)

Notice, no one is saying "Rodgers is awesome", "He's an amazing Quarterback", "He's the right man for the job" or, most importantly, "He's better then Brett Favre." The only argument in favor of making Aaron Rodgers the starting Quarterback of the Green Bay Packers is that he's "paid his dues." Simply put, Aaron Rodgers is the Daniel Akaka of Quarterbacks.

(Author's Note: The following is not meant as an attack, nor a slight against Daniel Akaka. I do not know him, nor have I ever met him. I do not harbor any resentment towards him. I have no political disagreements or philosophical differences that motivate me. I am simply speaking to the similarities between the situations of Aaron Rodgers and Mr. Akaka, when he was running for reelection in 2006.)

By all accounts, Daniel Akaka is a hard working, good, honest man. You would be hard pressed to find anyone either locally or in Washington who has anything bad to say about him personally. However, you would also be hard pressed to find someone who has anything good to say about his body of work. In 2006, Time Magazine coined him the "Master of the Minor" and ranked him as one of the five worst Senators in the country. His major accomplishment in the Senate is passing a resolution "by which the U.S. apologized for invading Hawaii in 1893." During his heated reelection bid against former Congressman Ed Case in 2006, whenever anyone was asked why they were voting for Akaka, they always replied...

"Because, he paid his dues."

No one pointed to a distinguished record of service. No one pointed out his ability to pass legislation. They simply said, "he paid his dues".

But what does that mean exactly?

"He paid his dues," is what girls tell their friends when they ask why they're going out on a date with their dorky longtime friend with a mullet and a lisp who brought his Care Bears lunch box with him to college.

"He paid his dues," is what they say when the 55 year old McDonald's worker with a 25 word vocabulary and a GED gets promoted from mop duty to the fries.

"He paid his dues," is what you say when you don't do laundry for 3 months, run out of clean shirts and justify wearing the ugly mustard yellow sweater your mother-in-law knitted you.

"Paid his dues" is just a nice way of saying that there's no other compelling reason to justify a decision.

In this case, it's a nice way of saying that Aaron Rodgers is not as good as Brett Favre. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Favre is one of the Top 25 Quarterbacks to ever play the game. He's loved by fans, feared by opponents and respected throughout football. Being a worse quarterback then Brett Favre is a like being a worse porn star then Kobe Tai. You don't beat yourself up too much, because not many people can take a pounding, get you excited and bring opponents to their knees quite like Favre or Kobe. (I've written a lot of metaphors in JBorhood, but I assure you, that was, far and away, the most fun metaphor I've ever researched. I was tempted to provide a link to inform the readers who are not familiar with Kobe's "body" of work, but decided to take the high road. Trust me when I say that searching for "Kobe Tai" in Google will more then suffice. You just might not want to do it at work...) So, calling Aaron Rodgers a worse Quarterback then Brett Favre is more of a testament to the ability of Favre then the shortcomings of Rodgers, but it still begs the question: Is Aaron Rodgers a little worse then Brett Favre or is he a lot worse then Brett Favre. Unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers, the answer is no one knows.

Yet, for some strange reason, the Packers don't want Brett Favre. They want "paid his dues."

In an vaguely similar situation (minus the over-dramatized comeback of a prima donna superstar), the University of Hawaii currently has a Quarterback who many feel should start because "he paid his dues." While Colt Brennan put up record setting numbers, Tyler Graunke patiently held his clip board, cheered from the sidelines and watched Colt lead the Warriors to the Sugar Bowl. Sure, Tyler had his moments of glory. He led the Warriors to victory on the road in Nevada when Colt Brennan was out with a concussion. He played decently against Georgia's third string in the third quarter of UH's blowout loss in the Sugar Bowl. But, the fact of the matter is, Tyler sat on the bench while Colt played because Tyler Graunke is no Colt Brennan.

Maybe Tyler Graunke is a stud. Maybe he completely outplays Inoke Funake and Greg Alexander in practice and earns the starting role. Maybe he has a better season then Colt Brennan ever did. (Maybe monkeys fly out of my butt.) Tyler Graunke might be an outstanding quarterback, my only point is that making him the starter simply because "he paid his dues," is absurd.

Because "Paid his dues," doesn't win football games. Laser rocket arms win football games. Sound decision making wins football games. Colt Brennan wins football games. Brett Favre wins football games.

You can have "paid his dues" if you want, but I don't want "paid his dues".

I don't want that stupid mustard yellow sweater.

I don't want Daniel Akaka.

I don't want Tyler Graunke.

I don't want Aaron Rodgers.

I want earned his dues.

I want to win.

I want Colt Brennan.

And I want Brett Favre.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go pay my dues.