When he finally broke his silence on Thursday, Aaron Rodgers said a lot. And there is still a lot to say about what he said.
Let’s focus on his decision to fly to New Jersey for a meeting with the New Jets coach Aaron Glenn. When he left California for his cross-country On-mon-owner Trek, what was he really expecting?
He had needed owner Woody Johnson for weeks. Rodgers had said a lot about the culture of the organization, especially with regard to “chickens“Leaks and Johnson Failure to support the public In the coach and GM
Rodgers is also quite intelligent (or at least it should be) to know that with Johnson hiring a disciple of Bill Parcels to be the head coach, things were going to be very different. No more peak on the tip of the feet around a delicate genius. It is football and his team and the coach always upgrades the quarter-tree and all the other players.
So, either Rodgers went there to provoke an inevitable test of strength (about which he could complain later) or to persuade them to give him a chance. And they did it. When Glenn asked if he wanted to play football, he didn’t say: “Hell yes!” He said, “Yeah, I’m interested.” (Which strangely resembles: “Yeah, I was immune.”)
Bad answer, Aaron. They already had concerns. They already had reservations. They were already ambivalent as well as possible to keep the player whose acquisition became the first domino of the chain of events which made the coach Robert Saleh and the director general Joe Douglas aim.
Rodgers bristled at the idea that the jets did not want him to exercise his influence in a way that made the new diet bad. And, by mounting his McAfee intimate chair to let off steam on the jets, it is Exactly What he did. He called the jets “already a debacle, in some cases”. So why was the hell “interested” to play there?
He knew, or should have known what they were going to say. He could have asked them before he got on the plane if he was wasting his time.
If he is as intelligent as he claims, he knew what was going on. And it is fair to wonder if he went there specifically to let this happen, so that he can then paint as a victim after the fact.
Rodgers proved the jets on Thursday in their decision to tell him that they continued. And he gave any other concerned team a clear warning: it is I’ll have you then.
