RODGERS FIRES BACK AT SEAN PAYTON — AND DEMANDS ONLY BAD BULLETS
This is a strange time to jaw at opponents, but Rodgers wants nothing but hatred from Payton, who takes over the Denver Broncos with Wilson at quarterback and only bad volume on Nathaniel Hackett
Here we have the bacteria of the intestines, or a dangling of the lice. Aaron Rodgers has chosen not only to back his new offensive coordinator in New York, Nathaniel Hackett, but to crush Sean Payton for mangling him. This is more than a devastating rebuke. This is a charge six weeks before the season, the first time we have any kind of levy in exchange of Tom Brady or, possibly, Joe Burrow.
What we have here is Rodgers, finally, taking over the New York Jets. It’s no surprise in that he always was going take them over, but not until he saw reason to plow forward with a broom on the schnozz. Now there is one reminder that he never faced a coach in his 12 years without an NFC championship, before leaving Green Bay last offseason. That coach is Payton, who should be concerned.
“It made me feel bad that someone who has accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure that they have to take another man down to set themselves up for some easy fall if it doesn't go well for that team this year," Rodgers told NFL + on Sunday. “I think it was way out of line, inappropriate, and I think he needs to keep my coaches' names out of his mouth.”
Payton’s decision to badmouth Hackett was out of line. In a piece with USA Today, he said Hackett’s 15-game run with the Denver Broncos was “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.” He also suggested the Jets were a “dream team” that was doomed to fail. All of which was intended to prop Russell Wilson — a quarterback who hasn’t been at his best for several seasons, needed more than a league-high 55 sacks and might need more than a push as age 35 is nearing. Was it really worth his aside to bring back the bad vibes?
“That wasn't his fault," Payton said. “That was the parents who allowed it. That's not an incrimination on him, but an incrimination on the head coach, the GM, the president and everybody else who watched it all happen. But everybody's got a little stink on their hands. It's not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line. That's how bad it was.
“Oh, man. There's so much dirt around that. There's 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don't know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn't just Russell. He didn't just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn't get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.”
All right, the Broncos were horrific with Hackett. But to turn Rodgers into even more of a New York figure, with both baseball teams currently out of the wild-card races, is another rise of the Jets as a sure-to-rise NFL team. There is still six weeks left until the start of the regular season. He has every reason to think, with the Bengals under the Burrow injury problem, that the Jets can make the playoffs and start to think big.
“My love for Hack goes deep. We had some great years together in Green Bay. Kept in touch. Love him and his family,” Rodgers said. “He's an incredible family man and an incredible dad. On the field, he's arguably my favorite coach I've ever had in the NFL. Just his approach to it. He makes it fun, how he cares about the guys, just how he goes about his business with respect, with leadership, with honesty, with integrity.”
Said Randall Cobb, who came with Rodgers from Green Bay: “You talking about the Bounty-gate coach?”
We are, all but forgotten.
That quickly, the Jets have turned their season into a panacea. The Packers won only 7 of 16 postseason games with Rodgers, but they have started over with Jordan Love. The Jets begin with Rodgers, nearing age 40. “Well, I’m not going to acknowledge Sean on that. He’s been in the league a while, he can say whatever the hell he wants, but as far as what we have going on here,” coach Robert Saleh said. “I can live by the saying ‘if you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t poppin, so hate away.’ Obviously, we’re doing something right if you got to talk about us when we don’t play until Week, and I’m good with it.”
Week 5. Can we start now?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.