Sense before dollars: Aaron Rodgers, Saquon Barkley do unthinkable in today's sports landscape
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, and Giants running back Saquon Barkley. Credit: Getty Images; AP
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Something strange is happening. Something that goes against the ways we have been conditioned to look at professional athletes for the last few decades. And it’s taking place this week in New York football right in front of our eyes.
Those greedy, pampered, unabashedly selfish, overpaid players we used to know and love — or at least tolerate — are suddenly an endangered species. They are being replaced by newly crafted identities at the top of the local football food chain that seem to care more about the things fans do — the team, success, victories — than their own ambitions and prides.
In just the last few days we have seen Aaron Rodgers essentially return $35 million in upcoming salary to the Jets, which they can now use to improve a roster already thick with talent, and we have seen Saquon Barkley decide that he would rather spend the next month sweating in the Jersey swamps with his teammates rather than training in some cool, exotic location before showing up for the Giants’ regular season.
Each is the best player on his squad. Each is setting a rather surprising example of team altruism that can only trickle down to the depths of the locker room and help each of their clubs be better this season.
Frankly, it’s going to take some getting used to after writing so many stories about money-grab contracts and unnecessary holdouts to squeeze out a few more bucks from the teams throughout the years.
Where have you gone, Le’Veon Bell? Our nation turns its cynical eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo.
The Jets wasted little time in using their newly unaccounted-for funds for their intended purpose. In a matter of hours after Rodgers signed his new contract with them on Wednesday, running back Dalvin Cook was on his way to meet with the team about signing here.
Asked about the pursuit of Cook, Jets coach Robert Saleh almost immediately spoke not about management’s decision-making or ownership’s willingness to spend, but about his quarterback’s generosity.
“I think Aaron made a heck of a statement,” Saleh said. “I’ve talked to you guys about how selfless and how thoughtful he is with his statement, with what he’s done with the organization in terms of giving us an opportunity to go and at least try to pursue a guy like Dalvin.”
More than that practicality, it sets a tone. Players rarely comment publicly on other players’ business, but you better believe each of the Jets knows what Rodgers gave up to help them this season.
“That’s a lot of money,” veteran safety Jordan Whitehead said.
Second-year safety Tony Adams, an undrafted rookie last year who, let’s be honest, probably won’t make as much in his entire career, in his entire lifetime, as the amount Rodgers swallowed with his paycut, certainly saw it.
“It says where his mindset is,” Adams said. “I think he’s thinking Super Bowl. Why not? That says a lot about him and how much he cares for this team. Who wouldn’t want a leader like that? Who wouldn’t want to go to war with a guy like that?”
“I think it says a lot when the best player on your football team and a Hall of Famer is willing to sacrifice something because he wants to win,” Saleh said. “That’s ultimately what we're all here to do. Yes, money and all that stuff, fame, all that good stuff, but at the end of the day we’re all happy when we win … I think it speaks volumes. We’re grateful for that.”
Barkley’s situation is a bit different. He didn’t offer to take less money the way Rodgers did in order for the unsustainable two-year contract the Jets inherited from the Packers when they made the trade for him to work. Barkley actually spent the past 10 months negotiating with the Giants in order to get as much money as he could. He was a free agent. That’s what free agents do.
When that didn’t happen after last week’s deadline and he was going to have to play this season on the franchise tag, though, Barkley could have easily sat out training camp. He was expected to, because that’s what 21st-century athletes do.
Most of us would have taken the extra month of summer vacation, too. Since the very first dollars changed hands between team owners and athletes there has probably never been a player who would have garnered as much public support as Barkley during a potential holdout. Everyone knows he is being underpaid, including, deep in their hearts, the people who are underpaying him.
And yet the running back has been there on the field with his guys the last few days. Disappointed, yes, but there.
It’s one of the reasons general manager Joe Schoen said this week: “I respect the hell out of Saquon Barkley.”
None of this puts either of the guys up for sainthood. They’re still closer to Canton than being canonized. And the money they are receiving — $75 million guaranteed for Rodgers over the next two years, up to $11 million for Barkley in 2023 with another possible payday as a free agent in March — is certainly life-changing coin.
But in an era when everyone seems to want more, these two said, simply, clearly, surprisingly, “Enough.”
Enough with the greed. Enough with the egos. Enough with all the things that have turned professional sports into the sordid sleazy business it has become. And back to what is supposed to matter most.
Wins. Championships. Legacies.
The stuff Rodgers and Barkley know that money can’t buy.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
