In a viral video posted earlier this month, junior college player Darius Maxwell intercepted and then taunted Packers QB Aaron Rodgers during a charity flag football game. After catching the ball, he ran and gave the ball back to the QB, and Rodgers promptly threw it back at him as he ran away to celebrate.
Even though Rodgers was clearly joking, social media started blasting him for his actions. This week, Maxwell sat down with PackersNews.com and explained what happened.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, if we was in pads we’d beat y’all.’ It was just a lot of talking. It was intense,” Maxwell said about the game versus a team captained by ex-NFL QB Mark Sanchez. “So that game, that game was very intense. I had three picks that game.”
When it came to going against Aaron Rodgers, Maxwell said, “The whole day I was playing zone. I wasn’t trying to play too much man ’cause I don’t play DB. So I was just backing up in my zone, I saw the corner route coming. ‘Cause I play receiver, so I know when they’re in certain positions, what route they’re running.
“They ran a bunch play, I was like ‘watch the corner route, watch the out route, then watch the crossing route.’ I literally called it out,” Maxwell continued. “So I just backed up on the corner, came back to the pivot route then came back to the corner. I just knew it, I hid behind the receiver. I didn’t fully go to him, I just sat behind him a little bit, played him … just, the IQ, just been playing football my whole life.”
After picking him off, Maxwell explained his reaction:
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“I’m telling you, I’m from Florida so when we play 7-on-7, we hand the ball back, we punt the ball after an interception. We throw the ball to the other side. … In that moment, I can’t tell you why I did it, I was just excited. ‘Here you go, thank you for the ball.’”
In his 14 years as a starter, Rodgers has only thrown 92 interceptions.
What we did not see on the video was Rodgers following up the interception by torching Maxwell in the subsequent series.
“It was nice, it was very nice. Pure (Aaron Rodgers). You can’t stop it. It was nice,” Maxwell said.
