Entertainment
Conan O’Brien Roasts Aaron Rodgers On Live TV
Recently injured Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is on his post-surgery media tour a few weeks after he broke his collarbone — on the same side as his throwing arm — and part of that involved a stop on the Conan show. Part of Conan O’Brien’s show is a recurring segment on his show called “Clueless Gamer.”
As a man in his mid-50’s, Conan is basically the worst video game player of all time. He sits with different celebrities and plays games that are about to be released in thinly-veiled advertisements — which typically backfires as Conan is a master at finding bugs or flaws in games.
The segment ended up breaking the Green Bay Packers/Minnesota Vikings interwebs as he dropped a few pieces of information that were essentially bombshells that no one saw coming. The first occurred in the segment that aired on television — there’s a second version online with outtakes as well — and basically shut down any hope that Packers fans had that Rodgers was going to return later this season.
Now, Rodgers had broken his collarbone before and returned the same year. The difference was that the broken collarbone was on the opposite side of his throwing shoulder whereas this fresh injury occurred on his throwing side. But there’s more to it than that, as well, so let’s watch the video and break down what Rodgers said about his injury and the hit itself.
Rodgers was in a post-surgery sling and it was the first thing that Conan asked him about after introducing him and he also ended up trying to show Rodgers the video of his injury but because of NFL rules, they couldn’t broadcast the video of the hit itself. The video they showed in lieu of it was hilarious.
They then brought in a skeleton with a Packers helmet on it so show Conan what a broken collarbone looks like. After the assistant used a hammer to break the collarbone on the skeleton, Rodgers killed the aforementioned hopes that Packers fans had.
It sounds like the break was extensive. He said he had 13 screws inserted into his collarbone and shoulder during this surgery.
They then played the game, which was called Assassin’s Creed Something or the Other and when Conan was getting smashed at the beginning of the game he said to Rodgers, “That’s the guy on the Vikings that pummelled you.”
Conan then discovered “God Mode” in the game, which made the player invincible but also made him flap his arms and fly around like a wounded bird. The creators of the game clearly didn’t like how that made the game look so for the first time the show was interrupted by a disclaimer from Conan and Ubisoft — the company behind the game — to state that “God-Mode” doesn’t exist in the actual game.
Either way, it wasn’t a good look — which actually defines every game shown on the show as Conan basically finds flaws in every single one. After playing the game a bit longer fellow Packers player and offensive lineman David Bakhtiari showed up and Conan roasted him for not doing his job and “protecting” Rodgers when Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr ended his season.
Conan literally yelled “HOW THE F*** ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO PROTECT AARON WHEN YOU’RE OVER HERE.” Bakhtiari actually sounded upset and just responded with “Um…” He then walked over to the skeleton and fixed the broken collarbone, which prompted Conan to call Rodgers a “pussy” on national television. It was glorious.
He then brought in a fan who had Rodgers on his fantasy team and shamed Bakhtiari for not protecting Rodgers. It was actually pretty brutal and while Rodgers took it all with a grain of salt it seemed to rub Bakhtiari the wrong way.
After Bakhtiari accidentally pressed the wrong button during the game, which made his player give mercy to one of the bosses he was fighting — as opposed to cutting his head off — Conan again roasted him by saying that his compassion was the reason that Rodgers got hurt. Brutal.
Beyond that there was a second quote from Rodgers that created a lot of waves online and it actually didn’t appear on the segment that aired on television, but instead was part of the “Outtakes” version available online.
The first thing was him accusing the Vikings linebacker of both giving him the middle finger and the “suck it” sign.
There were also rumors in Minnesota that Barr did the “Discount Double Check” move after injuring Rodgers which means that he must have an extra set of hands or two as he was giving the middle finger, suck it sign and “Discount Double Check” maneuver all at the same time.
Considering how the NFL protects its quarterbacks and that Rodgers is arguably the best QB in the league, it would be next to impossible for Barr to get away with something like that without a few penalties and perhaps an ejection.
Either way it was perhaps the most entertaining “Clueless Gamer” of all-time, especially because Conan really seemed to be going at Rodgers and Bakhtiari.
Fun fact, Conan lived in Chicago for a long time. The rivalry between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay pre-dates the Vikings/Packers hatred. ‘
While the Vikings have seemingly pulled ahead of the Bears in recent years in terms of which rivalry is more intense, there’s still a deep-seeded hatred for the Packers from most people who live or have lived in Chicago and that may be where Conan’s “jokes” were coming from.