ESPN host Mike Greenberg is a notorious fan of the New York Jets, and he has exhibited his elation on numerous occasions while on the air towards the team because of the acquisition of star quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Last night, Greenberg hosted a watch party from his home in New York City where the mood quickly turned from jubilation to despair. Rodgers suffered a torn left Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the game, officially ending his season and fluctuating the team’s championship odds as it seeks to snap a 12-year playoff drought. Although the Jets won the game anyway, the dramatic unfolding of events left Greenberg and many other fans of the team in a state of distress and disbelief.
Throughout the night, Greenberg’s wife shared several videos of him reacting to what had happened, including a video call with ESPN personality Pat McAfee. His daughter also posted an update about him pertaining to how he was taking the news in real time. As Rodgers received medical treatment and an X-ray, Jets fans held their breath over whether or not the star quarterback had avoided a serious injury. As it became more clear that it was likely an Achilles tendon injury, the football world recognized that its worst nightmare had come to fruition.
“It is time to get up with Aaron Rodgers,” Greenberg opened his program Tuesday on ESPN. “The star quarterback is down. Will he or his team get back? I can’t do this; I just can’t. Sydney, stop it; kill the music; kill the graphics [and] kill the video. I can’t pretend this is alright. I cannot pretend this is just a normal morning, [and] I cannot do the big voice.”
Greenberg was joined on set with Damien Woody, who was present at the watch party, along with Monday Night Countdown analyst Robert Griffin III. Conversation on the show centered around the injury and the future implications it could have on the team and league at large. Struggling to make it through the beginning of the show, Greenberg addressed how he felt about the entire situation since he knew it is something the audience would want to know.
“There is no way in the world I have processed this,” Greenberg said. “I understand that millions of things have happened yesterday in the world that, in the big picture, were more significant than this. But from a sports perspective, this is about as overwhelming as anything that could possibly happen.”
During his remarks, Greenberg ensured to note that there was a six to eight month stretch of anticipation and fantasizing of possibilities with the Jets, evinced by major media networks focusing large swaths of their coverage on Rodgers’ arrival. While there is no one factor to blame for the injury, he conveyed a cogent point that football is a violent and dangerous game where injuries are all but guaranteed to take place. As he has shrewdly done throughout his career on both television and radio, Greenberg sought to blend objectivity with subjectivity in describing his feelings about what happened.
“For it to come to an end like that that quickly, there’s no way I have fully taken in the magnitude of what actually happened on the fourth play last night,” Greenberg said, incredulously.
