WHY DID AARON RODGERS RETURN IF THE JETS ARE ROUTED ON MONDAY NIGHT?
He is healthy and played well in spurts, but the 49ers controlled his return to the NFL, which launches chatter about when the head coach will be replaced and whether a tortured defense will improve
The game didn’t pause for him, he said in post-ayahuasca sadness. Why come back to the NFL, then, if the mission will fade for Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets? He returned after 364 days and was greeted by a rude and cruel reception, losing Monday night in a blowout to a real Super Bowl team. The feedback won’t be about him, unless he sulks the week away, as he showed in staring numbly at his sideline.
His initial plays were ruined by teammates’ mistakes. The defensive woes, in a 32-19 defeat, are squarely on the chops of coach Robert Saleh. He becomes a candidate to be fired, at some point. And this is why Rodgers went through hell, recovering from a torn Achilles tendon last Sept. 11? “Everything stops. Your life stops,” he said. “I wondered, ‘Can I go out there and do it?’ ’’
He survived, without health issues but with impending mental concerns. If the Jets can’t stop the opponents — Christian McCaffrey didn’t play with a calf problem, leaving the San Francisco 49ers without the Offensive Player of the Year — what is the point of carrying on through an AFC dominated by Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson? At least he didn’t mope, disdaining the “b.s.” that plagued the locker room last season.
“We expect greatness when we step on the field. There were moments, moments that felt pretty good but not sustained,” Rodgers said. “I felt like if we could just get a first down we’d be rolling. But we had those three-and-outs which hurt us. I think a lot of stuff is correctable.”
Upbeat, of all moods. “This was a tough opener for us, travel-wise and schedule-wise. But no excuses,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got to play better. I’ve got to play better. We’ll bounce back next week. I can play better. I missed a couple of throws … and I felt overall, I was getting the ball out pretty good. But there are some opportunities I’d like to have back.”
So much for the next joyride. He’d promised “a little smirk” after the fourth snap, and it didn’t happen. He tossed a pitch to Breece Hall, who lost the ball when Fred Warner punched it, and Rodgers shook his head. Earlier, when Allen Lazard suffered a third-down drop, he only closed his eyes. Did we ever think we’d be staring at him when he had nothing to say? Did he know the evening would be as long as the last 12 months?
Briefly, he was allowed to celebrate, having knocked off a devastating injury that wrecked his career twilight. He led a 70-yard touchdown drive with sharp passes and watched Hall fall into the end zone, in Santa Clara, a drive from his California boyhood home in Chico. That is when Rodgers raised his hands, thrust a fist and looked at his teammates, who had waited for him to recover from a torn Achilles tendon, meaning he hadn’t played a full game in 610 days.
Now he has.
But what about his team? Less than three months from his 41st birthday, the man who won’t go away — when so many detractors have blown him off — is in a helmet and shoulder pads. Rodgers was so overwhelmed by Brock Purdy that we should reset nutty Gotham dreams. The Jets in the Super Bowl? They might be candidates to make the playoffs, maybe. Their defense can’t be pushed around by a second-string running back, Jordan Mason, with Purdy making no mistakes. As the 49ers took a 23-7 lead midway through the third quarter, they controlled the ball for 25:34 (with the Jets at 11:44) and dominated the yardage numbers. Rodgers had no chance to win, managing a scoring pass and a tipped interception. He was sacked and harassed.
If nothing else, they know their old man can throw and survive a sack. “That’s a championship outfit, and they introduced us to some championship football,” said Saleh, formerly the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. “We will be better, 100 percent. I’m not worried.”
Snoop Dogg showed up for the introduction, meaning he works for Disney and NBC and might be debating for the presidential election. Rodgers would like to join Tom Brady and Peyton Manning — media guys with widely different public perceptions — as the only quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl with two franchises. Those dreams won’t happen, as we know with Jets, who haven’t won a championship in 55 years. This was a creepy journey, when devils urged him to retire and gods told him to recover. He was worried about ramifications when he was tackled and running from traffic. He has survived, so far, thanking his surgeons and his loved ones. “It’s been a while,” he said. “I felt great, a lot of gratitude just to be back in pads. So many people helped me.”
“It was awesome, man, it’s great,” receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Having him in the huddle, we’re just going to get better. As far as seeing him out there, staying healthy throughout the whole game, it was a good feeling.”
We will watch him and remember the best. Maybe he has more left. But he’s 0-1 and alone in last place in the AFC East. If the Jets lose in Tennessee, we’ll worry much more about Rodgers’ mind than a tendon connecting a calf to his heel.
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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.