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This is a good sign for the Jets.
One thing we know that was lacking in the last few years was accountability and discipline.
It wasn’t exactly a tight ship.
A big reason the Jets hired Aaron Glenn was to improve accountability and fix the culture.
And based on what The Athletic’s Dianna Russini said on her podcast. Glenn is getting off to a good start.
According to Russini, they told Rodgers, that if he wanted to stay with the team, “You are not going to do Pat McAfee interviews anymore.”
That is impressive.
Those weekly appearances with the ESPN host and his big cast of sidekicks turned out to be a big distraction for the Jets the last two years.
Even when Rodgers was on IR two years ago, even with him not playing, constant news came out of those appearances.
Russini did not say what Rodgers’ reaction was to Glenn telling him that, but based on the fact that Fox’s Jay Glazer announced Sunday afternoon – “Aaron Rodgers flew back to New Jersey last week to meet with the Jets about his future with the team, only to be told that the team was moving on from him” the reaction could not have been good.
Look, I think it’s not ideal to cut Rodgers and go into QB Never-Neverland, but that doesn’t mean Glenn should appease the QB.
And telling him to pull the plug on the McAfee appearances was the way to go.
Those appearances were a “Distractionpalooza” to coin a term.
I will never forget one thing he said, which actually flew under the radar, but was an example of these weekly appearances not being the best-case scenario for the Jets.
A few days after a 2023 Jets loss to Cleveland, Rodgers commented on McAfee that the Jets were slipping a lot in that game because they were wearing the wrong cleats.
Maybe it was true, but surprised he said this because some would view this as a shot at the equipment staff.
Gus Granneman and Vito Contento have been running that department for a long time, and I never heard any criticism of them.
He didn’t say their names, but if you are saying there were issues with the cleats, if that was indeed the case, it doesn’t make them look that good.
Or maybe it was a shot at the head coach, who knows?
Look, I’m not a cleats expert, but have you ever heard a player on IR criticizing the cleats his team used in a game?
That is just one of many examples of what kind of things were said on that show – including criticizing the owner.
And speaking of the owner, Rodgers doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Woody Johnson, and while Glenn is deciding to move on from Rodgers, you could argue one reason the QB doesn’t want to come back is his poor relationship with the owner. I will get into that more tomorrow. You get the sense that he hoped Woody got an ambassadorship, and Christopher took over. It didn’t happen. Aaron loves Christopher.
But kudos to Glenn for Rodgers to pull the plug on McAfee if he wanted to come back.
That clown show contributed nothing positive to the Jets’ operation.
February 12, 2025
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