GREEN BAY, Wis. -- One day after venting on his radio show about the refereeing debacle that cost the Green Bay Packers a game in Seattle, Aaron Rodgers saved one last barb for the NFL.
Asked Wednesday about how the Packers were handling the aftermath of a Monday night loss that touched off a national firestorm about the league's use of replacement officials, Rodgers dismissed an NFL-issued statement generally supporting the officials' handling of the situation a "bogus report."
Beyond that, though, the NFL MVP said it's time to move on from the defeat.
"I think one thing that we really learned from it is, as frustrating as it is, ultimately it's a game judged by people who are imperfect, and there's going to be mistakes," Rodgers said.
"And you hate it that it affected us and we lost a win because of it, but there's a lot of blame to go around other than referees. They have a job to do. They're trying to do their best. They obviously didn't bring their best in that game and in that play, but there's a lot of blame to fall on the shoulders of guys like myself who didn't play their best game that night."
Going into Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints, Packers coach Mike McCarthy says it's fine for his players to use the incident as motivation -- to a point.
"I love emotion," McCarthy said. "Emotion is the engine that makes this thing go. So I'm for any kind of emotion, as long as it's channeled properly. So you want to talk about chips on your shoulder, whatever it is, the only emotion I don't really care about is self-pity. We're not the victim. Nothing's guaranteed to you."
Packers players know the time for venting is over. There's too much work to be done to dwell on anything else, especially since they're 1-2 after Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson's last-second pass was ruled a touchdown catch by Golden Tate.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
