Aaron Rodgers got here into professional soccer twenty years in the past desirous to be Brett Favre. He didn’t simply wish to be the beginning quarterback for the Inexperienced Bay Packers, he needed to win a Tremendous Bowl for them the best way Favre had. Now, what feels extra like 100 years later, he needs to do for the Steelers what Favre did for the Vikings on the finish of his personal profession, one thing Rodgers was presupposed to do with the Jets earlier than he fell down in all types of how:
He needs to make yet one more run.
Rodgers needs to make individuals keep in mind what he was like in Inexperienced Bay when he was younger and — at his finest — performed quarterback about in addition to it might be performed, even when he just one received Tremendous Bowl the best way Favre did. In some way it’s becoming that when he begins this new journey, he shall be operating out of a tunnel at MetLife Stadium once more, simply not carrying the American flag this time, and definitely not about to have his first collection being the final of his first season as a Jet.
Everyone remembers the ridiculous pleasure of that Monday evening in September of 2023, as anticipated a soccer opener as we’ve ever had round right here. Now we get a unique sort of opener, as a result of Rodgers is a Steeler now and the quarterback who’s changed him for the Jets, Justin Fields, began the Steelers opener for them final September. Nobody knew any of this was going to occur when the 2025 schedule dropped. Right here we’re, anyway. Rodgers will get yet one more second likelihood to point out the world he’s nonetheless nice, on the age of 41.
Favre went to Minnesota after he made that pit cease in New York, and actually got here inside one interception within the NFC championship recreation of going again to the Tremendous Bowl. Favre was that shut, after an everyday season when he threw 33 landing passes towards simply seven interceptions. So he did play the best way he did when he was younger, on the age of 40.
Now Rodgers will get the identical alternative to point out that he’s nonetheless as nice as he clearly thinks he’s, after a yr when — at mainly the identical age as Favre was in Minnesota — he threw 28 landing passes towards 11 interceptions. The Jets simply weren’t excellent. And when it nonetheless seemed as in the event that they is perhaps an excellent group, Rodgers — regardless of all of the speaking he did right here — not often made the sorts of throws with video games on the road that he used to make. And was employed to make.
It wasn’t all him, after all it wasn’t, nobody making an attempt to be truthful would counsel that it was. However whenever you look again on the one full season he had with the Jets — and slicing him slack as a result of he was an previous man getting back from an Achilles damage — there have been enormous and essential chunks of this season when he seemed like nothing greater than a glorified numbers hanger.
He had no respect for his two head coaches, that was clear sufficient. His pet offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, was fully out of his depth right here. In the long run, even when Rodgers didn’t like the best way issues ended when Aaron Glenn confirmed him the door, he wanted to go. Now he lands in Pittsburgh with one of the crucial revered coaches within the sport, Mike Tomlin. He’s obtained a protection and he’s obtained weapons and even in a meat grinder of a division that features each the Ravens and the Bengals, he’s obtained all he may ask for at this stage of his profession:
An opportunity.
There was an evening on the U.S. Open of 1991, when Jimmy Connors had his final, loud roar and made all of it the best way to the semifinals, when Connors was as soon as once more blowing the doorways off Louis Armstrong Stadium.
His previous pal Ilie Nastase was standing with me up within the press field after Connors had simply hit one other outrageous winner. And Nastase mentioned, “Jimmy has what we all want: One more time.”
“This is the second new, so it’s the new new,” Rodgers mentioned the opposite day. “I’m loving being here. The way that I’ve been welcomed has been really, really special from top down to the fans to guys in the locker room and sports staff, the men and women that work for this organization has been really, really special.”
Nicely, and in equity, he liked being with the Jets, too, particularly when he first hit city. It wasn’t simply the Jets who welcomed him. The entire metropolis did. He instantly was handled like a prince of the town, at sporting occasions and rock concert events and all over the place besides possibly the Circle Line. The individuals who labored for the group handled him like he was actually, actually particular from the primary day. So for him to even infer now that one way or the other the reception in Pittsburgh is deeper and higher than it was right here when he first hit city makes him sound like a bonehead.
Can he make the massive fourth-quarter performs for the Steelers that he didn’t make almost typically for the Jets? We’re about to seek out out, beginning Sunday. Is he going to maneuver round higher within the pocket the best way he did right here, when he typically did look as previous because the earth? We’re additionally going to seek out that out on Sunday when his previous teammates come after him.
Hear, it isn’t Aaron Rodgers’ fault that he obtained damage that Monday evening. It isn’t his fault that he rapidly came upon when he was wholesome once more how dysfunction the Jets actually had been. However he additionally didn’t do almost sufficient to vary the narrative when he had open receivers, both.
He talks now in regards to the “new new” in Pittsburgh. Beginning on Sunday, the Steelers discover out and we discover out simply how previous previous Aaron Rodgers’s act actually is.
