Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers doesn’t want distractions in 2024. That doesn’t apply to the distractions he creates.
By way of background, Rodgers made this statement on January 8: “Anything that has nothing to do with winning needs to be evaluated. So anything we are doing in this building, individually or collectively, that has nothing to do with actual victory needs to be evaluated. . . . It’s not a half the time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most of the time thing, it’s an every time thing. If you want to be a winning organization and be in a position to win championships and be competitive, everything you do matters, and nonsense that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building. So, that will be the focus going forward.”
Earlier this week, Rodgers said this only applies during the season and in the building. Which, given the breadth of his words, makes no sense. For comparison, when the Patriots were winning championships, “do your job” and “no days off” didn’t just apply from the time training camp opened until the confetti fell at the Super Bowl.
Appearing on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio with Adam Schein on Thursday, Rodgers was asked to explain his views regarding “distractions,” given both his offseason exploits (podcast appearances and VP chances) and his appearances during the season with Pat McAfee.
As he often does, Rodgers began by addressing those who would dare criticize him.
“Listen, I think there are people who have their opinion of me, and that’s fine,” Rodgers said. “And they’re going to use whatever linguistic justification they want to support whatever narrative they’re going to push about me, and that’s fine. “I don’t spend any time worrying about those people’s opinions or what they think of me.”
Your knowledge of the content of the scrutiny would suggest otherwise, and that’s fine. He’s not the only one in professional sports to claim that he ignores the haters while also being fully aware of everything they say.
The most outlandish things came from his effort to take what he said in January about distractions and turn it into something that doesn’t apply to him.
“You know, the comments I made were intentionally vague, because unlike some of the things that actually happened last year, I’m not a leak,” Rodgers said. “I’m not someone who’s going to expose much of our business. I just don’t believe it. I think you should take care of things at home. That’s what I meant when it was a distraction. I think there is a way to do things. And maybe I was a little brainwashed being in Green Bay, but I feel like during those 18 years we did a really good job of keeping things in-house, and I think there’s some of that. “There’s something about being a winning organization and protecting the locker room and protecting the sanctity of private conversations.”
So it’s not about distractions, it’s about leaks. So why didn’t he just talk about leaks and not distractions? (It’s not the first time Rodgers has publicly complained about the Jets and leaks. He did it to McAfee last year, denouncing anonymous sources attacking Zach Wilson as the hallmark of a “shithole” operation.)
Rodgers then moved on to the topic of the question he was asked: his own propensity to create distractions.
“When it comes to using the word distraction, listen, you know, I think anyone would jump at the opportunity to be with Joe Rogan,” Rodgers said, apparently speaking for all of humanity. “He is the number one podcaster and perhaps the leading journalist in the world. More people listen to his show than anyone else. I respect what Tucker Carlson has done in his space and I also enjoyed doing that podcast. And the third one I did was my dear friend Morgan Hoffman, if you know Morgan, he has an incredible healing story. So I don’t regret any of that.
“The vice president thing came out and, like I said, it was an honor to be considered worthy of having a conversation about it with Bobby, but people think they’re distractions, that’s fine. I’m probably still going to do McAfee, and I’m probably still going to piss off some people because of my vax stance or my ideas about this or that, and that’s fine, but you know what you’re going to get from Me Inside a Locker Room. I think in general. . . To put this to rest, the idea of distractions is a much bigger issue outside the building than inside. I mean, no one has talked to me about any of these things being distractions. My teammates love to delve into all kinds of topics, some of which you’ve seen me talk about on some of these podcasts. What they are thinking. . . . There are great conversations in the locker room and no one worries about distractions. Nobody said anything about the whole vice president thing during the whole thing. It wasn’t even a topic of conversation. Don’t worry, nothing. The idea of there being a lot of distractions is a conversation outside the locker, outside the facility, not inside.”
He is very good at saying what he needs to say to justify what he wants to do. Which definitely qualifies him to make an eventual foray into politics.
As for the final part of his response, that no one from the Jets said anything during the VP thing, Rodgers omits the fact that he was held incommunicado during the entire ordeal. The Jets didn’t hear from him. They didn’t know what he was going to do. It was only this week that we (and presumably the Jets) learned that Rodgers would have retired from football (i.e., resigned from the Jets and left them holding the bag at quarterback) if he had decided to take up the cause of running for a position he had little or no chance of winning.
He has not yet been asked how close he came to applying, or even whether he was offered the place. (Reports at the time indicated that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s donors did not want him.)
There are many things that need to be pushed on him. However, you will never participate in a podcast that involves aggressive questioning that challenges your views and words. He prefers to stay in safe spaces that allow him to talk and talk and talk without anyone saying, “Wait, Aaron, let’s talk a little more about that thing you just said.”
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