I’m only adding to the discourse and giving this dickwad exactly what he wants. Aaron Rodgers wants everyone to whisper and hold their breath about his possible return this season. And that’s all he wants. All he’s wanted for two or three years is attention and for people to think he’s some special creature bestowed on us to show us a better way. Actually playing and winning football games for the New York Jets? Rest assured he doesn’t really care.
Sure, he’ll put it on tape that he can throw the ball and do something of a drop-back before the game on national TV. It’s more than enough to get a conversation going on the broadcast, which gets a conversation going on the various postgame shows, which gets a conversation going on social media, and he remains in the news and trending and gets to see his name everywhere, which he equates to importance. So do a lot of others. That’s the end game here.
What does he really have to gain by actually suiting up? Sure, there’s the chance he could rescue the Jets season, guide them to the Super Bowl, and become a New York legend in a way that a player can’t possibly in Green Bay (sorry Sconnies, but you know it’s true). Except the Aaron Rodgers who could do that hasn’t been around for three or four seasons. He’s not actually that good anymore. And he’s certainly not going to be that good at 40 having missed months. The window for him to do all that is so very tiny.
If Rodgers goes out there and he sucks? Or if he goes out there and his whole lower leg disintegrates simply jogging out of the locker room? How could he possibly taut the fantastapotamus semen he used to get healthy or whatever it will be? How can he look like a mad genius that we plebes just don’t understand if he looks every bit of a 40-year-old on one leg trying to play NFL football in a city that will have four minutes of patience?
But by just dangling the idea of that in front of all Jets fans’ faces for weeks on end, getting all the ESPN screaming heads into a lather they might drown in, by sending Twitter closer to destruction (maybe the only good thing he can do), the legend grows. His name becomes bigger. The idea of Aaron Rodgers continues to outsize the reality of him. If he never makes the bell, at least before the Jets season becomes meaningless, he can snort all of the headlines and stories and sob stories from those in green that start with, “If Aaron had just stayed healthy…” Even if he comes back to play next year, and isn’t all that good, he’d have the shelter of having missed a whole season and it’s just too hard to come back from that in one’s 40s.
Rodgers wants to start the fire but watch the firefight from afar. He’s already got that. And it’s all he needs, so he’s going to sit on it, soak in it for some weeks more. It’s all he could ask for.
Discipline coming for Michigan
The Michigan scandal is about to get dumber. The Big 10 That’s 18 alerted the school that discipline is coming, and Michigan has made it clear they’re readying their team of lawyers to counteract whatever that discipline might be. And their defense appears to be, “Look at everyone else doing it!”
This whole thing has always smacked of a bunch of teams not being able to get anywhere near Michigan on the field, so they’ll take this route. Don’t really hear Georgia complaining about this stuff. TCU just kicked their ass too and coded their signals differently. It’s somehow dumber than the Astros scandal, because teams are allowed to watch video from previous games and figure it all out but if they tape it live? Get out of here.
It’s always felt cheap that college teams can send their offense to the line, and then look back to the coaches to call a play based on the defense they see. And now they’re all filling their pants because Michigan found the best way to do that themselves when everyone’s on the line? Grow up.
Michigan will sue and whatever else to keep Harbaugh on the sidelines for their last two conference games, and then probably accept a suspension for the Big 10 championship game against a team they would punt into orbit anyway. And then the school and coach will probably go their separate ways in the offseason, now that he’s already opened a recruiting pipeline that others can probably manage. Wake us up when it actually gets interesting.
More woes for the Oilers
Say, has the Oilers season gotten any better since we last checked?
Oh. Hmm, we’ll come back in a couple weeks then.
Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @felsgate.bsky.social