Competitive spirit fuels Purdue quarterback Blough

When Brian Brohm was a backup quarterback in Green Bay, he’d often find himself in intense battles with Aaron Rodgers.

Not necessarily throwing footballs in practice.

Inside the locker room — before video games and being lost in cell phones became a thing — players would hunker down and lock in for Backgammon or Cribbage. Brohm, now Purdue’s quarterbacks coach, could count on one hand how many times he actually beat Rodgers.

“He’s competitive in every single thing that he does,” said Brohm, who was a second-round pick by the Packers in 2008 and spent nearly two seasons with the franchise. “He was kind of like that where he didn’t want to lose at anything, no matter what you were doing. You definitely see that in guys who are successful at the position.”

Brohm sees that same kind of unrelenting competitive spirit inside his own QB room these days.

He realized it early on with projected starter David Blough, and the impression was cemented at the end of spring ball when Brohm had the QBs over to his house where they engaged in a table tennis tournament.

Blough considers himself the best Ping-Pong player on the team, largely because it’s something he has put tons of time into, playing at home in Texas with his brothers and, often, ruling that table.

But on this day in April, even though Blough was the most talented player, Brohm said, whipping out spins and slams, Blough did not win.

The champ was walk-on Danny Carollo.

And Blough did not handle it well.

“David wasn’t going to leave the house until Danny played him again so he could at least beat him one time,” Brohm said. “But I told him, ‘The tournament is over. You don’t get to go back.’ But you could tell — any little competition you have, he has that burning desire to be the winner. He takes it hard when he loses. It’s important to him. He’s got that competitive drive that you look for.”