During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, when answering a question about keeping his nerves in check and whether scripting the first 15 plays would help in that regard, Rodgers threw out the following:

We don’t script our first 15 plays anymore. You have to account for nerves with every player. Deep breaths and getting over first few plays of the Super Bowl is necessary. I’m sure there will be a lot of excitement.

I found this shocking when I read it (I remember someone Tweeting it) especially as Rodgers apparently said it in such a matter of fact manner, as though the Packers weren't thumbing their noses at 20+ years of West Coast Offense tradition.

Ever since reading it, I had wanted to ask Mike McCarthy about it and I finally got the chance to do so yesterday. I asked him when they stopped and here is what he said:

I would say sometime last year. The first 15, it has a strong history that goes along with the West Coast Offense, I know it’s something that I’ve been a part of since 1989. Frankly, I got away from the first 15 because I thought there was too much emphasis on the initial first couple calls of the game. I didn’t like the result of some of the conversations that had taken place. We do spend a lot of time on the first situational call, we do the first 15 different than different staffs that I’ve been on. We’ve never scripted the first 15 as you’ve seen coming into the game. We’d always script what you’d call the first 15 ‘thoughts’ as far as how we feel the game is going to be played versus what we’re trying to accomplish in the early stages of the game, how the defense reacts to us and so forth. The philosophy’s still there, we just don’t spend the time of putting the first 15 and the major emphasis on it the day before the game like has been done before.

Of course, I took note of this in light of what I wrote about back in May of 2009:

Mike McCarthy, like Sherman, Lewis and Holmgren before him, has a set of 15 to 20 scripted plays, otherwise known as 'Openers', that he uses at the beginning of each game in order to test the defense to see how they will react to various formations, personnel groups, etc.  Both McCarthy and Rodgers' need to do a better job with the openers, but Rodgers in particular needs to get a handle on whatever it is that puts him out-of-sorts at the beginning of each contest.

What is interesting, at least to me, is the struggles the Packers had in 2008 and 2009 on their opening drives seemed to at least lessen with the switch in philosophy (I love the idea of the first 15 "thoughts"). The offense, and Rodgers in particular, certainly seemed to move the ball with a bit more efficiency this season. I'll obviously need to go and watch the opening of all 16 games plus playoffs and Super Bowl. I'm very interested to see what I find.