The jets have been ready to go from Aaron Rodgers since the day they hired Aaron Glenn, but Aaron Rodgers is not ready to leave.
There, Rodgers was Thursday afternoon, sitting on a rear patio somewhere Sunny (probably his house in Malibu, California). He wore headphones with threads, the genre that came with older iPhones, as he said – protects his brain. When the jets appeared, its internet connection has become jerky.
“I’m sure they are trying to close this part,” he said, with an ironic smile. Or, perhaps he had to reduce the costs after – as he pointed out in McAfee – “I stole across the country on my own penny” in New Jersey to meet the jets at the start of the offseason, in what would be his last moments to Florham Park.
Rodgers thought he met Glenn and GM Darren Mougey to offer his thoughts and opinions on jets, which had to be repaired and the future – his and the team. (“Why wouldn’t you want to choose my brain?” Said Rodgers.) But, as Rodgers says, Glenn was not interested in his opinions. It was not a meeting to assess the interest of Rodgers to return. It was a meeting to let him know that with a new diet taking over, he was no longer in the plans of the jets. As Rodgers said to McAfee:
“I thought that when I stole across the country on my penny, there would be a conversation,” said Rodgers. “I meet the coach, we start to speak … It lacks the play. I’m like, it’s strange. Then he returns with the GM. So we sit down and I think we are going to have this long conversation, I stole across the country, and 20 seconds, I’m sure I play football? And I said: “Yeah, I’m interested.” And he said, “We are going to another direction in the quarter-arre”. “”
“I was a bit shocked.”
Then said Rodgers, he discharged.
“I just took the plane across the country and you could have told me on the phone if we were not even going to have a conversation,” said Rodgers.
Rodgers said Glenn then asked him for the message of how he wanted his release to be announced. According to Rodgers, Glenn said, “I don’t want to be in front of the room saying something and having guys watching you. And I said, “You assume that I would be at the back of the room at a team meeting, knowing what you say? You don’t know me. And he said, “You don’t know me. And then I said: “Exactly, that’s why I stole across the country to have a face -to -face meeting with you.” “Later in the interview, Rodgers said:” I think it was a bit of the head coach. “”
Glenn had no interest in being in the Aaron Rodgers sector, and it is difficult to blame him. If anything, the way Rodgers managed the consequences, in particular the interview on Thursday with McAfee, proved that the jets had made the right decision.
Think about the start of Rodgers-Jets wedding.
In 2023, the jets flew to Malibu with a contingent of key decision -makers to convince him to play for them. They hired Nathaniel Hackett as an offensive and too paid coordinator Allen Lazard in a free agency to make Rodgers more comfortable. Once the trade is finished, Rodgers made a salary to help the jets sign a little more of his friends, or the players with whom he wanted to play – Randall Cobb, Dalvin Cook, Billy Turner, Tim Boyle among them. None of these signatures worked. For a while, other GMs around the league have referred to Moqueur the director general of the time, Joe Douglas, the deputy director general of the team. The joke: Rodgers was really the one who called the gunshots.
Rodgers has promised jets the world. Instead, he gave them a world of distraction. In two years, he has made more titles for his appearances with the media than for his game on the field.
In February, the jets pulled Rodgers. He was never dismissed before. He says he wants Glenn to have shown him enough respect to fire him on the phone rather than, as he said on Thursday on Thursday, making him pay his own path through the country for a short meeting. (GM Packers Brian Gutekunst could tell you that Rodgers would not have answered the phone anyway.)
“I thought there was no sufficient respect at this meeting,” Rodgers told McAfee. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised on the basis of certain things that I saw over two years.”
If Glenn had told Rodgers that they had finished with him on the phone, had Rodgers criticized him for not having made him face to face? Glenn managed this in the right direction. For all the missteps of the jets out of the field over the years, it was not one of them.
In the business world, companies often make mass fire via Zoom – sometimes employees discover that they were rejected by e -mail. Most NFL players do not receive the same courtesy as the jets provided to Rodgers: the coach told him the man to a man. Was it a severe approach? Of course. Could Glenn have used a softer touch? Maybe. But what would have been the point of letting him linger? Glenn has torn the dressing. Nothing but Rodgers was not going to say at this meeting would influence Glenn and Mougey. Thus, Rodgers discovered that he was back a few minutes after arriving at the installation of the jets. And now Rodgers can continue, just like jets too.
For two seasons, Rodgers was a walking distraction. The jets have never dissuaded him from making appearances in the emission of McAfee, even if he used this platform for Call the teammates,, Conspiracy theories And generally move … Only so that Rodgers later denounces the organization of the jets to have so many non -football distractions.
Glenn has been the jet coach for 85 days. Meanwhile, he has already put his cachet on how things will work. It is connected to leaks in the building. The jets actively tried to avoid making the headlines, while they chased them (Rodgers contributed in this area, certainly). The jets have emptied their list, and now there are only four 30 -year -old players left in special teams, and one (Tyrod Taylor) a quarter aid. Rodgers did not correspond to their new chronology or their new culture. This is now the team of the coach, not that of the quarter. Whether it works or not, it was a necessary change after A disastrous two years.
Who can say that Rodgers would not put the jets along this offseason in the same way that it is currently launching the Pittsburgh steelers? Just look at the conversation with Glenn that Rodgers relayed. According to the quarter-Arrière, when Glenn asked “Do you really want to play football?” Rodgers replied “Yeah, I’m interested.”
We are in April and Rodgers did not decided if he wanted to retire or play. NFL’s draft is next week. The jets have evolved. Justin Fields is their quarterrier – and they will not have to worry about making him weekly on television. Fields wouldn’t even bite When it was given an opening to criticize the Steelers for having put it in bench last year to try to re-sign the offseason.
Now, the Steelers turn their attention to Rodgers. Pittsburgh is a desperate team to overcome the bump, who needs a quarter-back, and Rodgers is in sight. It seems familiar.
(Photos: Sarah Stier, Ed Mulholland / Getty Images)
