One season into his career with the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers’ tenure has been marred by injury and controversy.
There’s not much Rodgers could do about the former. Conspiracy theories aside, Rodgers tore his Achilles just four snaps into the season, quickly erasing the team’s hopes of making a Super Bowl run. The latter, however, well, there’s a lot Rodgers can to about the latter.
Monday morning, Rodgers met with the media and expressed the need for all of the outside bullsh*t to be flushed away from the building.
“Anything that doesn’t have anything to do with winning needs to be assessed. Anything in this building that we’re doing, individually or collectively, that has nothing to do with real winning needs to be assessed. Everything that we do has to have a purpose,” Rodgers told reporters. “If you want to be a winning organization…everything that you do matters, and the bullsh*t that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building.”
Uh oh. That assessment doesn’t bode well for the Jets and their future which remains so heavily attached to Rodgers being their starting quarterback next season. If their success does truly hinge on finding and flushing any bullsh*t out of the building, then the first finger has to be pointed directly at Rodgers.
It was a totally fair assessment and an important sentiment from Rodgers. Unfortunately, he conveniently escaped the fact that he’s been the Jets’ biggest distraction. Despite having little value or legitimate role on the Jets this season due to injury, Rodgers created more off-the-field controversies than anyone on the team.
Rodgers might think he was faulting internal moles and leaks for making it harder to win, but nearly everyone who read or heard the quote immediately called him out for being the Jets’ consummate bullsh*t stirrer. And most of it occurred during his appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, where the quarterback is paid to create viral clips and headlines.
During Rodgers’ fourth season on The Pat McAfee Show, he mocked Travis Kelce as “Mr. Pfizer,” challenged Dr. Fauci to a vaccine debate, duped everyone into believing he could return from a torn Achilles this season, referred to “alphabet gangsters,” and accused Jimmy Kimmel of being on Jeffrey Epstein’s list of associates.
In the words of Sarah Marshall, “Bullsh*t, bullsh*t, bullsh*t.”
Zach Wilson started the most games in Rodgers’ absence for the Jets this season, and the most controversial off-field thing he did was go pumpkin picking with his family during the bye week. That’s not to say Jets fans should want to see Wilson starting, or even on the roster, again next season. But Rodgers repeatedly looks like a quarterback more concerned with creating headlines than winning. And if the Jets are serious about winning next season, the outside bullsh*t needs to stop.
[Jets]
