Old men shouting at clouds

Amnesia is a plague for the ages, when it comes to athletes in the doddering stage. They forget so much as the years flutter past, and embellish so much else.

And so a few years back Charles Barkley blasted the Kevin Durants of today's NBA for chasing rings, forgetting that he himself kinda-sorta did the same thing back in the day. The fact his chase was unsuccessful didn't make it less a chase.

Now here comes Terry Bradshaw, whom some folks think has been doddering for awhile. Recently he went on WFAN's Moose & Maggie Show to blast Aaron Rodgers as "weak" for not being happy in Green Bay anymore, focusing on Rodgers' alleged disgruntlement with the Packers drafting a quarterback (Jordan Love) a couple years ago.

Bradshaw pointed out that when the Steelers drafted Mark Malone and Cliff Stoudt as his career wound down, you didn't catch him bitching and moaning. He "embraced" it because he wasn't concerned with either draftee QB.

"Let him cry," Bradshaw said of Rodgers, shouting at clouds and shaking his bony fist.

To which those aware of Bradshaw's revisionist history would reply: Well, son, you'd know all about cryin'.

As Jesse Spector of Deadspin pointed out the other day, Bradshaw no more embraced the challenge of Malone and Stoudt than France embraced the challenge of stopping the Germans in 1940. In fact, as injuries slowly drew the curtain on his career, he bitched and moaned with the best of them as he tried desperately to stave off the end.

On a couple of occasions, he even went after Steelers head coach (and NFL coaching Rushmore occupant) Chuck Noll after Noll expressed doubts about Bradshaw's continued viability.

"He ought to just keep his mouth shut," Bradshaw said, according to Spector's piece.

Now, my memory may not be what it once was, either. But I don't recall Rodgers going so far as to publicly trash his head coach, Matt LaFleur. Let alone a Hall of Fame head coach.

To be honest, it seems Rodgers is less miffed about the presence of Jordan Love than he is the absence of a few more weapons. His loyalty to Green Bay is unquestioned -- the man has been a Packer for the entirety of his 16-year career -- while the Packers' loyalty has been, shall we say, somewhat less so.

Over the years, they've offloaded receivers he's liked, and replaced them with linebackers and defensive ends and the like. Last week was no different; in the midst of the widening rift with their Hall of Fame quarterback, the Packers' alleged brain trust took a cornerback in the first round of the NFL Draft.

It was almost as if they were saying, "That'll learn him, the big crybaby."

I'm sure Terry Bradshaw would have approved of that sentiment, if so.

Big crybaby that he himself is notwithstanding.