Aaron Rodgers might “resent” the allegations that he had anything to do with the New York Jets firing head coach Robert Saleh earlier this week, but that doesn’t mean questions won’t keep coming.
Those questions aren’t coming fast enough for Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, however.
A day after appearing in the comfy confines of The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers met with Jets beat reporters and New York media members Thursday. While the quarterback claims that Saleh’s employment never came up during his conversation with owner Woody Johnson beforehand, plenty of people are skeptical. Others have even outright accused Rodgers of being the one to make the decision. Thursday’s press conference was an opportunity for the four-time MVP further to clarify what happened and where he stands with it.
Florio was paying attention to the press conference and he came away unimpressed. Not with Rodgers but with the media members covering him.
“The New York media has a reputation for being harsh, persistent, and dogged. If that was ever the case, it’s definitely not true as to the Jets and quarterback Aaron Rodgers,” he wrote Thursday. “Rodgers has never faced tough questioning from the reporters who cover the Jets. On Thursday, they had their latest opportunity to interrogate him regarding the recent firing of coach Robert Saleh.
“Collectively, the Jets’ press corps gets a D-minus for its effort.”
Florio then pulled apart one reporter’s attempt to get information out of Rodgers, saying that in asking the Jets’ signal-caller three questions at once, he was able to escape answering two of them.
Florio added that the job of beat reporters “isn’t very hard” and “requires clear thinking, the discipline to resist meandering, and (most importantly) the willingness to put someone like Rodgers on the spot,” something he doesn’t feel has happened.
“If I play better, this doesn’t happen”
Aaron Rodgers when talking about Robert Saleh’s firing and Hackett’s demotionpic.twitter.com/nz7Dg4Zt1B
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) October 10, 2024
Rodgers did answer questions about the timing of Saleh’s firing (“It was obviously the direction Woody wanted to go.”) and what was discussed on his call with Johnson (“He asked me how I was doing, and we had some small talk, and then the conversation ended.”).
PFT shared the article on X early Thursday afternoon. Several members of the Jets media corp soon noticed it and had some thoughts on Florio’s framing.
If you’d like to get off your high horse & come attend something in person we’d love to have you.
Would love to hear your criticisms face-to-face. https://t.co/V622R1VJLG
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) October 10, 2024
Should only take you about twoish hours to get here if you feel like asking some questions yourself Mikey. https://t.co/yYvWOEcKFX pic.twitter.com/gUR7K4BSrU
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) October 10, 2024
It’s going to be hard to live with myself after learning I contributed to the D- we got from PFT. I let everyone down. I’m very, very sorry and will try to do better. https://t.co/3uHP1RLwqc
— Andy Vasquez (@andy_vasquez) October 10, 2024
The peanut gallery chimes in … https://t.co/JFIKjpLUvA
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) October 10, 2024
Most of these were either asked during the press conference or answered in Rodgers’ responses. How about you come to Jersey and ask whatever questions you want to Rodgers’ face since clearly you have an agenda? https://t.co/pF6FC80aaI pic.twitter.com/XQrSG8jJd3
— Antwan V. Staley (@antwanstaley) October 10, 2024
“Yes, the purveyor of journalism is an aggregator who spends most of his time re-posting everyone else’s work,” added The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt in a separate post.
Florio did offer a response to ESPN reporter Rich Cimini’s reaction.
Use some of that attitude on Rodgers. https://t.co/wwdKYywDwa
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 10, 2024
We’ll see if Florio takes the reporters up on their offer to join them at the next Jets presser.
[PFT]