Boomer Esiason wants credit for reporting Aaron Rodgers to the Jets before Trey Wingo

As Trey Wingo receives attention for reporting Aaron Rodgers to the Jets is “done,” Boomer Esiason is looking for some flowers of his own.

For the last couple of weeks, Esiason has broadcasted his belief that Rodgers will be the next quarterback of the Jets on his WFAN morning show with co-host Gregg Giannotti. But that belief failed to gain the type of traction that Wingo received from his tweet about Rodgers to the Jets Monday afternoon.

Boomer Esiason wants his flowers pic.twitter.com/sK0ZKXBqjY

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 14, 2023

“Trey Wingo is reporting that Rodgers has been traded to the Jets. Nobody else has confirmed this report,” Esiason said Tuesday morning on WFAN. “Well I’ve been saying it for two weeks and nobody else has confirmed it either, but when it happens are you going to say, ‘As reported by Boomer two weeks ago?’”

Esiason has sounded very confident about the prospect of Rodgers becoming a Jet in recent weeks, but he never officially reported it. I believe Giannotti even asked Esiason at one point last week if he was ready to report Rodgers to the Jets as breaking news, and the former NFL quarterback declined.

“Maybe it feels like because we give a lot of opinions here that you’re presenting this as an opinion not a fact?” Giannotti asked. “Maybe that’s why it’s perceived that way, whereas, if you put it out in a tweet, ‘Aaron Rodgers is going to be here,’ then it would have been taken as fact.”

Esiason said he would rather talk about it on their radio show than put the news out in a tweet. “How come when I say something on WEEI it gets blasted all over the place?” Esiason asked, seemingly sharing a gripe with WFAN’s social team for not treating his opinion of Rodgers as a report.

“What does fait accompli mean?” Esiason asked referring to the term he used on Monday to describe the status of Rodgers being traded to the Jets. “I do believe that Aaron Rodgers is, like I said, it’s a fait accompli,” Esiason said Monday.

If Esiason tweeted “fait accompli” or “done deal” regarding Rodgers and the Jets, it would have garnered thousands of retweets. But by only saying it on his radio show, he’s relying on WFAN to give it a boost on social media or aggregators to pick it up. And although I heard Esiason sound confident about a trade for Rodgers getting done, I never took it as a report, which is why I refrained from aggregating it.

When Esiason said Keith Hernandez was returning to SNY, WFAN shared it on Twitter and presented it as “Breaking” news, which is why Esiason received credit for that report. When Esiason stated the Washington Football Team would be renamed the Washington Admirals, he received credit because he definitively stated “I’m reporting it’s the Admirals,” albeit a report that turned out to be wrong. But in terms of Rodgers to the Jets, there was never a “report” or “breaking news” label attached to his commentary, which is why it was taken as an opinion.

[WFAN]