After injuring himself four plays into his debut with the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers rendered the team — and possibly himself — irrelevant.
On Monday morning, ESPN and Charter Communications settled a two-week stalemate over carriage fees, which some had postulated could change cable television, and sports along with it, for years to come. One clear factor forced the two sides to the table: the imminent premiere of Monday Night Football last night. There was too much money to make off that one football game for either side to risk missing out. And that particular game was especially valuable for one primary reason: It was Aaron Rodgers’s grand debut for the New York Jets.
He ended up lasting four plays. They definitely dotted every “I” and crossed every “T” on that ESPN/Charter contract, right?
When Rodgers went down after throwing a single pass last night, it was a crushing blow to him, the NFL, and of course the Jets, a franchise whose history generally consists of one crushing blow after another. It’s not yet known for sure how serious Rodgers’ injury is, but Jets head coach Robert Saleh pronounced it “not good” after the game, and several sports doctors (none of whom have actually seen Rodgers, it should be noted) have suggested he tore his Achilles tendon. That would mean the end of his season, and possibly the end of his career. Four plays in.
Perhaps the wildest aspect of the whole evening: Somehow, insanely, the Jets ended up coming back to win in overtime. It had to be their most exciting victory in years. All told, though: I suspect they’d still rather have Rodgers.
Suffice it to say: This is not how things were supposed to go. The drumbeat of hype leading up to Rodgers’s first game with the Jets had been so incessant and inescapable that all of Sunday’s opening weekend games felt a bit like an undercard to Monday night. Rodgers orchestrated much of the hype himself. He’s been building up a new version of his persona since forcing a trade to the Jets from the Packers back in April; the ensuing publicity tour felt like an exercise in image management after a two-year heel turn in which he was better known for being a COVID-19 denialist, conspiracy nut (remember, he once claimed that UFO sightings were a way to distract us from Jeffrey Epstein), and guy-who-won’t-stop-talking-about-how-he-takes-mushrooms-in-a-yurt.
