Welcome to Aaron Rodgers' world, Jets fans
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
Get used to plenty more days like Monday, when every tap of the social media refresh button brings a palpitation, when the anxiety of contradictory reports and speculations are swirled with a maddening informational vacuum, and when the theoretical and practical deadlines of the rational world no longer exist.
This is the emotional wormhole the Jets have decided to dive into headfirst with the hopes of ending their half-century of misery. They have the young roster filled with talent and poised to be title contenders, many of them spending their time Monday trying to read tea leaves and sharing optimism right along with everyone else. All they are missing is the player who will become the best quarterback in franchise history — sorry, Joe! — the moment he decides he wants to come along for that ride.
So while alternatives and options kept slipping away to other organizations — with Derek Carr signing in New Orleans last week, Jimmy Garoppolo agreeing to terms with Las Vegas on Monday and even fan favorite and one-time potential answer Mike White departing for Miami — the Jets and their fans were left dangling in uncertainty.
Like it or not, we’re in Aaron Rodgers’ world now.
Even as we wait to see if he’ll actually join us in ours.
Anyone who thought there would be a resolution to this saga just because the NFL opened its period for free agents to begin negotiating with teams at noon Monday, or that it will come by 4 p.m. Wednesday when the new league year begins, doesn’t know Rodgers. It may happen by then, but only coincidently in sync with whatever Dali clocks tick inside his chakras.
The payoff for abiding all of this angst and drama now theoretically will come on 17 or more Sundays starting in September. That’s when the Jets hope they’ll get to employ the services of one of the most prolific and successful passers in the history of the game, a quarterback who already boasts Hall of Fame credentials.
The Jets have waited 50 years for a player of his caliber; what’s another five hours or five days or even five weeks, as long as it happens eventually and translates to a championship?
No one at the parade next February will be groaning about Rodgers’ mercurial ways and smarmy indecisiveness.
As we live through it now, though, it is a little hard to stomach.
When this bizarre and petulant act played out in Green Bay, it was easy to laugh it off as someone else’s problem.
On Monday, it wasn’t quite as humorous.
So consider these past few days and weeks of frustration practice for when Rodgers actually is a Jet . . . because odds remain high he will be despite the lack of tangible evidence presented Monday.
Even if things go as smoothly as Woody Johnson imagines they will on the field with Rodgers running the huddles, there are going to be inevitable agita-inducing moments for however long his tenure here lasts. There will be petulant podcasts that come out of nowhere and spark hours of radio and television chatter. There will be quotes that come off as childish or arrogant or pushy or pedantic.
And there will be more offseasons to come spent trying to decipher Rodgers’ motivations, commitment and desire.
That’s the significant baggage Rodgers brings with him.
He’s not a villain, of course. Though these days it’s difficult to vouch for anyone, Rodgers doesn’t seem as if he’ll be one to make the kinds of immature off-field decisions that land players in legal trouble and embarrass organizations. He’s not going to get swept up in New York City party culture. His greatest vice probably would be golfing too much.
That doesn’t mean he won’t be a complicated handful.
The hope is he will be the same quarterback he has been for the better part of the past two decades.
The reality is he’ll be the same person he’s been throughout that journey no matter if or where he winds up playing.
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.
