During his appearance this week on The Pat McAfee Show, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers stated that it is unrealistic to think that he will be 100% on the field if he were to suit up for the team again this season. Rodgers is in the midst of recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered on the fourth play of the season during the team’s Week 1 matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Ben Maller spoke about the incident while hosting his program on FOX Sports Radio.
There was much fanfare surrounding the arrival of Rodgers and potential emergence of the Jets this season; however, his injury and other deficiencies on the field have secured a losing season and the 13th consecutive year without a playoff berth. The team currently holds the longest playoff drought in the National Football League and has not won a Super Bowl championship in 54 years, matching the longest stretch between championships in New York sports history.
Throughout the year, a subject of Rodgers’ interview appearances on The Pat McAfee Show discussed the possibility of returning to the field. McAfee often broached the topic by asking questions that elicited Rodgers to reveal information, which led to subsequent reaction from reporters and fans. Rodgers’ return would have marked the fastest return to play from an Achilles injury in the history of the league, a feat currently held by former Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers who did it in five-and-a-half months.
“I think we found out this week we all collectively, the collective ‘we,’ we all wasted a ton of time with Aaron Rodgers,” Josh Klingler said Thursday morning on 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City, Ks. Although the local Fescoe in the Morning program largely focuses its football coverage on the Kansas City Chiefs, the show also talks about the league at large. Because of Rodgers’ openness and ability to generate interest, his interviews became difficult to ignore and something that football fans anticipated every week.
“His favorite topic is Aaron Rodgers,” FOX Sports Radio host Ben Maller said, joining the program as a guest. “He can’t talk enough about Aaron Rodgers and give us the runaround. And I love even after he pretty much announced, ‘Hey, I’m not playing; I’m not going to play,’ the Jets still went out and put him on the roster and got rid of a guy. The hutzpah of Rodgers.”
Rodgers reportedly receives $1 million for his appearances on the show, according to intel from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. Since he is compensated for his guest spots, something he has done with the program for the last five years, Ben Maller figures he has to say something interesting while he is on the air. Morning co-host Bob Fescoe, however, would not allow Rodgers’ injury to be used as a mulligan for coaches and team personnel to keep their jobs after a year that fell short of most expectations.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody that is just so narcissistic like Aaron Rodgers,” Fescoe said. “I mean every week we’re subjected to this kind of stuff, and I know we can avoid it, but it gets to pretty hard to avoid some stuff like this. He led these guys along the entire time and the Jets continued to buy into this.”
Maller shared that someone who used to work at FOX Sports Radio and played for the Packers spoke about how Rodgers used to give quotes and then watch the reaction in the media. It seemed as if he enjoyed hearing what media members thought, taking pleasure in overreactions in things he said. Based on this account, Maller assumes that he still probably does that in playing within the largest media market in the country and ostensibly having a larger megaphone.
“All of us go crazy, of course, because it’s our job to go crazy about things that he does,” Ben Maller said. “….How do you hang out with other people if you’re wired that way? Who wants to be around someone like that? I don’t.”
