I'm not going to play the "I've supported him since_____ card" here and frankly I don't give a rat's behind who liked him when and what not. I'll just say that for now, he's my favorite manager in all of sports. I'm probably a typical American in that I follow just about every team sport that gets any kind of coverage here and I have a favorite team in each, but Rodgers is my favorite manager or coaching figure out of the whole lot. Why that is, I can't rightly say, but there is a quality there that goes beyond the on the field management and tactics.
Regarding the game day management, when it was announced he was the manager, I did a bit of research into what his philosophy was about the game to see if I could get a feel of what his tactical approach would be, and I remember thinking that it would be a change from the way the team was playing and that there would be a learning curve, but I was hopeful that it would work. Last year I saw promises of his approach working, but I really didn't form my current opinion of him until this year, and a lot of that has to do with the superior coverage we get here with NBC. Last year Fox had the league and the coverage just wasn't as good. Now I get all the games and quite a bit of the interviews as well.
That's the thing that endears me to him the most. The guy just never says the wrong thing and you never hear him tear down a player in public, even when it's as obvious as anything who had a good or a bad game. What he says during training might be another thing altogether, but it appears to me that in public this team comes across as a tight knit family. You watch post match interviews and it's almost like everyone is on the same script. How much of this attitude is passed from him to the players and how much is just a result of the closeness of the team? Either way, you have to give him a fair amount of credit for it.
I think he's an excellent motivator and he builds up and installs confidence in everyone around him. You can see it in the players, especially the way Sterling ran to him after he scored last week. You know that he has to have the players feeling invincible. Maybe a lot of that is the confidence they see in his system when they score goals and win games playing that system, but there appears to be a bit more to it than just that. Then when he speaks of the supporters you as a fan feel your heart swell with pride, even those of us who are overseas and don't get to attend matches and participate in the atmosphere. Yeah, winning helps, but as a fan seeing the way he handles the press and hearing the way he builds up his players and the supporters, it makes me feel like I'm more than just a fan of a team, but that I'm part of a large close knit family. There's just nothing fake about the guy. He's genuine, and that's more than you can say for a lot of people, let alone sports managers.
Would I feel this way if the team wasn't playing the way they are right now? I don't know, but I think I would. He comes across as a man of genuine passion for the game and for his team, but also as a man of character and integrity. He's a good football manager, but also a real fine human being. You can't say that about everyone in this game.
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