Today, footage from NFL Drafts is widespread. TV coverage and expert analysis of practically every draft pick is instantly spread across the internet. As a result, draft analysts know that every word they say about any draft pick during a broadcast will likely live on long after the draft. This was not the case in 2008. Back then, archived video clips were not as prevalent digitally, and most of the ones that were could only be found on YouTube. Prior to 2010, the majority of the draft coverage that you could find on the internet was from the first round and usually only included the first few picks. That means thousands of regrettable statements made by analysts during draft broadcasts throughout the years were never revisited or scrutinized. Unless ESPN or the NFL Network decide they want to roast their own, lots of great material to ridicule is going to remain stacked in their archives collecting dust. However, occasionally, among the scarce material available, classic Freezing Cold Takes are hiding below the surface, waiting to be discovered. Such was the infamous “Brian Brohm over Aaron Rodgers” clip from the 2008 NFL Draft.
BRETT FAVRE “RETIRES” (MARCH 2008)
When Green Bay selected Louisville senior quarterback Brian Brohm in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft, it immediately triggered speculation about what that meant for Aaron Rodgers, the team’s recently installed starter at the position. Rodgers, the Packers’ first-round pick in 2005, had been the backup to Packers legend Brett Favre for the previous three seasons. He had rarely seen the field, playing in only seven regular-season games, throwing 59 total passes and one touchdown. Rodgers only saw significant action in one game, in 2007, on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys in Dallas, when he played two-and-a-half quarters after replacing Favre, who had injured his elbow. But that was about to change. A month before the 2008 Draft, the 38-year-old Favre announced his retirement and the franchise expressed a complete commitment to Rodgers as the team’s quarterback of the future. Despite the front office’s vote of confidence, Rodgers was still an unproven backup. Whether he had the talent to be a high-level starting quarterback in the NFL was yet to be seen. To many, he was not a slam dunk.
Favre’s breakup with Green Bay became messy. In July, he wanted to come back, but the Packers wouldn’t guarantee him the starting job. Essentially, the franchise had moved on. The Packers ended up trading him to the Jets, causing resentment among many fans. The support for Rodgers within the franchise was strong, but it didn’t seem that fans would be very patient if he didn’t play well.
BROHM: A LOUISVILLE LEGEND
Brian Brohm had been a productive three-year starter at the University of Louisville. A hometown kid from a football family, he broke out during his junior year in 2006 when the Cardinals finished the season with a 12–1 record. He was named MVP in the 2007 Orange Bowl, a Louisville win over Wake Forest. Most analysts believed Brohm would have been a first-round pick in the 2007 Draft if he had declared after his junior year, but he chose to stay for his senior season. He said he wanted to try to lead Louisville to a National Championship and, in the process, further enhance his draft stock. In June 2007, ESPN’s premier draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Brohm as the No. 1 player on his 2008 Draft “Big Board.” Further enhancing the hype, a photo of Brohm, standing in front of two of his Louisville teammates, was featured on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s 2007 college football preview.
The preseason buzz about Brohm’s impending senior season fizzled fast. Louisville struggled under a new head coach, finished 6–6, and failed to make a bowl game. Individually, Brohm performed relatively well, throwing for 4,024 yards and 30 touchdowns. However, he also threw 12 interceptions, which was as many as he had thrown in the three previous seasons combined. Ultimately, his draft stock took a hit. By the time April rolled around, the majority of projections had him slotted for the late first or early second round.
“[BROHM IS] PROBABLY THE MOST READY TO PLAY [AN NFL GAME]”
Despite Louisville’s disappointing season, many openly wondered why Brohm wasn’t receiving more love from the draftniks. Even with Boston College’s Matt Ryan and Delaware’s Joe Flacco in play, there were still a few who thought that Brohm should be considered the top quarterback of the bunch. A Cardinals scout told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he thought Brohm was “more polished, more ready” than Ryan, who was the top quarterback on almost everybody’s board and a projected top five pick. Another scout told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he thought Brohm “is probably the most ready to play” in an NFL game. Before the draft, Kiper said that Brohm was “his guy at No. 2” in terms of quarterbacks on the draft board.
Perhaps the biggest Brian Brohm advocate was longtime Louisville writer Rick Bozich. The week before the draft, Bozich wrote in the Courier-Journal that the love of Ryan over Brohm was “puzzling.” He had covered Brohm since he was in 10th grade at Trinity High School in Louisville, so he knew him well. “I watched Brohm make most of his important throws at U of L, the ones that won the Orange Bowl, beat West Virginia and made the Cardinals seem like a cinch to hang 40 points on any defense with even tiny flaws,” he wrote. He also cited Ryan’s interception rate in 2007, which was higher than Brohm’s. “One thing I do not see when I look at Ryan’s passing performance is a guy who was mistake-free in the short-to-medium passing game.”
“ACTUALLY I DO LIKE BROHM BETTER THAN AARON RODGERS”
Despite the high praise, Brohm slipped to the late second round where Green Bay grabbed him with the 56th pick. Ryan was picked third overall by the Atlanta Falcons and Flacco went to the Ravens at 18th overall. When the Brohm pick was announced at Radio City Music Hall in New York, it drew a mini-ovation from a row of Packer fans in the first mezzanine.
From a television programming standpoint, the Packers’ live selection of Brohm during the second round was unmemorable. For a few years, it was a moment that very few, if any, people ever thought about. It probably would have been long forgotten by now if it hadn’t been for a YouTube account with the handle “packersinsider.” About a month after the draft, the account posted a five-minute video of alternative coverage of the draft aired on ESPNNews, one of ESPN’s secondary channels. It features a panel of ESPN experts, including ESPN analysts Merril Hoge, Robert Smith, and Todd McShay, in a studio along with host Rece Davis. When the clip begins, the Packers had just selected Brohm in the second round. After announcing the Packers selection, Davis told the panel, “Now you have Brohm and Rodgers, both with the opportunity long term to be the Packers quarterback.” Right away, Hoge, a veteran NFL analyst and former league player, confidently, and without hesitation, asserted, “Actually I do like Brohm better than Aaron Rodgers,” noting that Brohm played in two pro-style systems at Louisville.
McShay went even further. “I like him,” he told Davis. “I honestly think Brian Brohm, two years from now, could be the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.” He then added, that “Brohm’s upside is greater than that of Aaron Rodgers.” McShay explained that his pre-draft ratings for Rodgers and Brohm were very similar. Three years earlier—before the Packers selected Rodgers, who played at University of California–Berkeley, in the first round of the 2005 Draft—McShay had rated him as early second-round caliber. He thought Rodgers had no creativity coming out of college, and McShay had concerns about the system run by Cal head coach Jeff Tedford. Hoge expounded further, stating:
When Rodgers was coming out, the one thing he lacked was anticipation. He had to see a route, come open, see a wide receiver come open, and that’s just disturbing. When you are thinking about transitioning, Brohm does not do that. He will throw with anticipation, and that is a huge advantage going into the next level.
“[PACKERS GM TED] THOMPSON HAS BROUGHT IN A POLISHED ROOKIE WHO WILL BE PEEKING OVER RODGERS’ SHOULDER RIGHT FROM THE START”
Rodgers was given the keys to the kingdom as soon as Favre retired. However, he must have had some concerns that the Packers selected a quarterback so early in the draft during the year he was finally taking over as the Packers’ quarterback. “[Packers GM Ted] Thompson has brought in a polished rookie who will be peeking over Rodgers’ shoulder right from the start,” wrote Tom Oates in the Wisconsin State Journal. Some loosely compared the situation to three years earlier, when Favre was firmly entrenched as the Packers’ quarterback and Green Bay selected Rodgers in the first round. Nevertheless, the same day the Packers picked Brohm, Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy allayed any immediate concerns and made it clear that Rodgers was the clear-cut starter.
Once training camp commenced, it quickly became apparent that Rodgers had nothing to worry about. Brohm struggled mightily. On his first pass attempt in the Packers’ first preseason game, he threw an interception on a badly overthrown ball, finishing the game 8-of-17 for 70 yards and a 33.9 passer rating. “I think that wasn’t good for his confidence,” said Bozich in 2020. “[Before the NFL], he never really struggled that much.” By the time the preseason ended, he was surpassed as the number two quarterback by fellow rookie Matt Flynn, picked by the Packers in the seventh round. While the Packers didn’t make the playoffs in 2008, Rodgers proved his worth. He threw for over 4,000 yards, with 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. By the end of October, Green Bay had given Rodgers a six-year, $65 million contract extension, signifying that they planned for Rodgers to be the team’s starting quarterback for years to come. Any issue about Brohm replacing Rodgers was already ancient history.
As for Brohm, his press clippings and his perceived talent proved to be a mirage. After one year at Green Bay as third-string quarterback, where he never took a regular-season snap, he was waived. He then signed with Buffalo and played two more seasons, starting two games and losing both, throwing zero touchdowns and five interceptions. After that, he bounced around the (now-defunct) United Football League and the Canadian Football League for five years before calling it quits. As of 2022, he is the quarterbacks coach and co–offensive coordinator at Purdue University, where his brother Jeff is the head coach.
Bozich now concedes that the draft projections showing Matt Ryan ranked higher than Brohm were accurate. “In retrospect, the NFL people were right,” he said. “[Ryan] definitely has a more dynamic arm and can make throws that Brohm couldn’t make, but from what I saw in college, I thought Brohm was the better player.” One thing Bozich can’t reconcile is how Brohm’s NFL career turned out. “I can’t believe he didn’t make it at least as a backup somewhere,” he wondered. “I look at some of the guys that hang around the league for a long, long time, and I look at what happened in [Brohm’s] career. I don’t get it.”
Rodgers has, of course, gone on to become a Packers legend. He led the Packers to a Super Bowl championship in 2010 and was named the MVP of the game. He was also the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2011, 2014, 2020, and 2021. As of 2022, at 38 years old, he remains the starting quarterback for the Packers.