Ryan Clark says Aaron Rodgers ignored him during visit to Steelers training camp

Aaron Rodgers and Ryan Clark have shared several choice words with each other in the past. And according to Clark, Rodgers now starting at quarterback for Clark’s former team hasn’t calmed any of the animosity between the two.

Clark has never denied that Rodgers is one of the most decorated and talented quarterbacks to have ever played the game. But the longtime Pittsburgh Steelers safety has been quite candid in calling it how he sees it when it comes to the drop in production that we have seen from Rodgers over the past few years.

Rodgers, meanwhile, has long shared his contempt for ESPN entirely, previously ripping the network by declaring that it has “transformed into a bounty of unfounded or asinine takes”.

Despite all that has been said between the two, Clark shared during an appearance on Meadowlark’s Football America! podcast, hosted by Dave Dameshek, that he recently tried to bury the hatchet with Rodgers at Steelers training camp. But instead, Clark had a rather awkward interaction where Rodgers largely ignored Clark’s presence entirely.

“There was a lot of people who I felt like were excited to see me in camp. And then there was one… It’s cool though, it strangely enough made me respect him,” said Clark of Rodgers. “I hit [Steelers director of communications] Burt [Lauten] up, because we were coming to campus. I have nothing against dude, he’s fine. I was like, ‘Man, I would love to sit with him.’ I’m apart of the history there. He’s the quarterback with our team now. I actually don’t dislike him. I want to sit with him, welcome him to Steeler nation, and just kind of have a conversation. I didn’t want to have a conversation about that. I wanted to talk about his career. I have said over and over again, he’s the best quarterback I ever played against.

“He declined, he had other things to do, which I respected. But when we were pulling up to campus, he was talking to Arthur Smith when we were going up the hill. For me, if I truly don’t have an issue with you, I’m going to speak to you. I’m going to say hello. It’s rude not to, in my opinion. So he was talking to Arthur Smith. I talked to some of the guys I see coming from the special teams meeting. I roll the window down and I say, ‘What’s up guys.’ Arthur Smith kind of speaks. Aaron Rodgers looks at me and he doesn’t say anything.

“I respected it because he was like, ‘I’m not gonna be fake.’ For whatever he feels or whatever it is, he’s like that is not someone that I fool with in that way and I’m not going to fake it. And I think it set the tone that you and I don’t talk. When I was on the field, I didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t say anything to me. But I did get a good chuckle out of it. Channing [Crowder] thought it was funny. Fred [Taylor] thought it was funny. They were like, ‘Damn, he didn’t even acknowledge it.’ And I was like, that’s better than it being an issue.”

To be fair to Rodgers, Clark has gone as far as to call Rodgers a fraud when referencing who he is as a person, not on the football field. So Clark surely couldn’t have expected that he would go and be best friends with Rodgers when seeing him at Steelers camp.

Regardless, it is quite clear that sharing the bad blood between Rodgers and Clark runs much deeper than the black and gold jerseys the two have each worn as members of the Pittsburgh Steelers.