{"id":56858,"date":"2023-11-14T10:01:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T00:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=56858"},"modified":"2023-11-22T09:35:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T23:35:17","slug":"just-shut-up-aaron-rodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2023\/11\/just-shut-up-aaron-rodgers\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Shut Up, Aaron Rodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Like what you read from our hard-hitting columnist?<br \/>\nFollow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\">@Guywholikessport<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\">FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday Night Football this week, Aaron Rodgers told the broadcast that his \u201cgoal\u201d is to return from the torn Achilles that he suffered in week 1 of this season by mid-December.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Jets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Jets<\/a> QB Aaron Rodgers told me he wakes up thinking about rehab and goes to bed thinking about rehab. He starts with four hours every day with his physical therapist, and then goes home and swims and gets in the hyperbaric chamber.  Returning is his sole focus. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SNFonNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SNFonNBC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; melissa stark (@melissastark) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/melissastark\/status\/1724132228823674905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 13, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If he actually tore his Achilles on September 12, that\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aaron Rodgers was injured and helped off the field on the first Jets drive vs. the Bills. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vtKHRW566V\">pic.twitter.com\/vtKHRW566V<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ESPN (@espn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1701392400675926144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Especially for a 40-year-old quarterback who would be playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, at a time when offensive line play is at an all-time nadir.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aaron Rodgers launching passes less than two months after Achilles surgery \ud83d\ude33 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cIQTo0KFwl\">pic.twitter.com\/cIQTo0KFwl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ESPN (@espn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1721672028753695035?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But this is more Aaron Rodgers making it about Aaron Rodgers. The language of it being his \u201cgoal\u201d is perfectly non-committal, giving himself enough room to wriggle out of it, if and when he doesn\u2019t make it back.<\/p>\n<p>Where have I heard that before? Oh, that\u2019s right, when he told us he was \u201cimmunized\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udd18 NFL has fined the Green Bay Packers $300,000 and quarterback Aaron Rodgers $14,560 for violation of Covid-19 protocols.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd18 Rodgers admits he &#39;misled&#39; people about his vaccination status after saying he had been &#39;immunised&#39; against the virus.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sky Sports NFL (@SkySportsNFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkySportsNFL\/status\/1458413080883380226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Aaron Rodgers, with his obfuscation and vagueness, would make a tremendous politician.<\/p>\n<p>As you can probably tell, this is not going to be a super generous column toward Rodgers, so I\u2019ll get to some compliments.<\/p>\n<p>As a player, he\u2019s maybe the most talented quarterback we have ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s between him, Mahomes, and John Elway. He has a freaky release, incredible arm strength, mobility that has waned but has remained good enough, and an exceptional football IQ.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CwoMph2zxnQ?si=zKpY8SkL8Gf0lSdT\">His throw to Jared Cook against Dallas in the 2017 Divisional Round is probably the best throw I have ever seen.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=314&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNFLVines%2Fvideos%2F774598049355212%2F&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=560&amp;t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In fact, he has a catalogue of the best throws I\u2019ve ever seen: the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_fjE1B6VcZE?si=YgqhqsC3zeA7xKKa\">Hail Marys against Arizona and Detroit<\/a>, the one that was <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SqwHLgFmO20?si=CxhLF75axg9M292n\">called back against the Bears in 2014<\/a> and the skinny post to Greg Jennings in the Super Bowl that helped set up the game-sealing Super Bowl to name but a few.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">With 31 days left until the start of the NFL season, let&#39;s look at this absolute laser from Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings to pick up a 31 yards and shift momentum during Super Bowl XLV. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/q0aGJXHCNa\">pic.twitter.com\/q0aGJXHCNa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; r\/GreenBayPackers (@redditPackers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/redditPackers\/status\/1424766173028052995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He is one of the most dominant regular season quarterbacks ever, with 4 MVP awards that include 2 of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever played (2011 and 2014).<\/p>\n<p>He has, however, just one Super Bowl victory and just one victory in five Championship Games.<\/p>\n<p>He is a spotty playoff performer.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not even what I\u2019m talking about here.<\/p>\n<p>He is so annoying.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not the worst person in the NFL &#8211; it\u2019s hard to wrestle that title away from Tyreek Hill and Deshaun Watson &#8211; but he might be the most annoying.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s like Janice Soprano in the way that he can make anything that is happening about himself, from COVID-19 to the Packers\u2019 drafting defensive players or Jordan Love in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last decade, he has consistently made himself the story, blamed everyone but himself, and has become the worst exponent of the Joe Rogan-style faux-enlightened conspiratorial moron who thinks of himself as the only one who can see the wood from the trees.<\/p>\n<p>He talks like a Byron Bay transplant who stands to inherit his family\u2019s big tobacco fortune about his ayahuasca use and the \u201chealing\u201d that came from it, his time in a darkness retreat, or his challenging Travis Kelce and Fauci to a debate about vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a bullshit artist.<\/p>\n<p>The best examples are his various retirements from Green Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers talked about retiring after crashing out the playoffs, usually unceremoniously, every year after 2020, the year that Green Bay drafted Jordan Love as the heir apparent.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers told us he didn\u2019t want to be like Brett Favre then, with his cavalcade of fake retirements, he became a carbon copy.<\/p>\n<p>My personal favourite was in 2021 when he talked about retiring to host Jeopardy!<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aaron Rodgers is a guest host on Jeopardy tonight \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jeopardy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Jeopardy<\/a>)<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bYIt7yy3k0\">pic.twitter.com\/bYIt7yy3k0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1379110520943341568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Did anyone from Jeopardy ask? Irrelevant. Rodgers decided that everyone should be talking about Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p>He usually fake retired to get more money out of Green Bay, or as a vessel to talk around his trite, non-specific grievances with the way Green Bay did business. Never mind the fact that they were a perennially good roster who always did well in regular seasons and had a quarterback who saved his worst football for the biggest moments.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not talking Kevin Garnett is Minnesota here.<\/p>\n<p>His complaints boiled down to wanting to be consulted on personnel decisions, which doesn\u2019t happen anywhere in the NFL but especially not for quarterbacks who have only delivered one Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Really, what Rodgers wanted was control.<\/p>\n<p>When he joined the Jets, they hired the offensive coordinator he wanted off the worst season of head coaching in NFL history (Nathaniel Hackett), signed moderately talented friends of Rodgers (Randall Cobb and Allen Lazard), and they lay at his feet after signing him.<\/p>\n<p>To thank the Jets for bending to his every whim, Rodgers just handed them back $35m. The message was clear, \u201cif you do exactly as I say, I\u2019ll look after you.\u201d Good organizations don\u2019t do that. The Jets did.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just the fake retirements or his enlightenment. It\u2019s his smugness. He doesn\u2019t smile, he smirks. His air is constant as if he knows something that you can\u2019t comprehend.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aaron Rodgers darkness retreat has officially ended, this is where he spent his time (via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FOS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FOS<\/a>) <\/p>\n<p>Partially underground in a Hobbit-like structure with 300 square feet of space that included:<\/p>\n<p>* Bathroom <br \/>* Queen bed<br \/>* Meditation-like mat on the floor<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MDflvwHg0D\">pic.twitter.com\/MDflvwHg0D<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL_DovKleiman\/status\/1628833689076436994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not some mysterious genius. He\u2019s just a guy with a subscription to YouTube Premium. He\u2019s like the guy that Will Hunting dresses down in the bar. Just regurgitates nonsense he saw online once. At least the ponytail guy was reading books.<\/p>\n<p>No idea if Rodgers likes apples though. He\u2019s probably worried about the pesticides.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers\u2019 latest one about coming back in 4 months from a torn Achilles continues his fascination with making the story about himself. He makes sure the cameras can see him throwing the ball against the air pre-game, especially in prime time, so people start talking about whether he can really do it.<\/p>\n<p>He can\u2019t. If he does come back in December, he won\u2019t tear his Achilles. Simple.<\/p>\n<p>More likely, he doesn\u2019t come back and then blames Jets doctors for not letting him back on the field. And it\u2019ll be another offseason of Rodgers wondering aloud if he should retire to do some miscellaneous activity. Maybe The Chaser?<\/p>\n<p>Who knows. But I\u2019m dreading seeing what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Like what you read from our new columnist?<br \/>\nFollow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\">@Guywholikessport<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\">FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":56868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8298,13,344],"tags":[4250,8260,2105,47,8392,36],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-56858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guywholikessport","category-american-football","category-sports","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-guywholikessport","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-2023","tag-special-interest"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"14\/11\/2023","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56858"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=56858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}