Don’t blame Aaron Rodgers for the New York Jets’ decision to fire Robert Saleh, and don’t credit Mike Francesa with it either.
Immediately after the Jets lost to the Minnesota Vikings in London on Sunday, Francesa called for Saleh to lose his job. Francesa, however, didn’t believe owner Woody Johnson was “smart enough” to reach that decision himself. Less than 48 hours later, Johnson reached that decision. And in the wake of that decision, Rodgers doesn’t want blame, and Francesa is humble enough to know he doesn’t deserve credit. Francesa joined The Dan Patrick Show Wednesday morning to discuss Saleh’s firing and admitted he was surprised by the move.
“I was surprised Woody made this move,” Francesa told Patrick. “And I called for this last week, and I’m not saying he did it because of me because he didn’t. I doubt Woody listens to me, Woody and I don’t get along. But the point is, I didn’t think Woody had this in him to do this, but of course Woody screwed it up like he screws up everything football-wise because he didn’t do it the right way, he did it halfway.”
According to Francesa, the right way would have been for the Jets to get rid of Saleh and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett while checking to see if Mike Vrabel or Pete Carroll were interested in coaching Rodgers for the rest of the season, however unrealistic that may have been. But someone will need to relay that to Woody because if the Jets owner doesn’t listen to Francesa’s podcast, he probably wasn’t listening to his interview with Dan Patrick either.
Francesa may have brought Mike Piazza to the New York Mets and canceled the 2012 New York City Marathon after superstorm Sandy, but even he knows he didn’t inspire the decision to fire Saleh. Remember, this is Woody Johnson’s Jets, not Mike Maccagnan’s.
According to Francesa, Maccagnan used to call him to “pick his brain” when he was the Jets’ general manager. That might be news to Johnson, however, who was serving as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in the Trump administration for most of Maccagnan’s tenure as Jets GM.
