Aaron Rodgers is in the building. He has made the walk to the facility, which the team has captured on video in super slow motion.
At 2:00 p.m., he’ll be meeting with reporters for the first time as a member of the Jets. He’ll get his first real taste of the New York media. And it will be very interesting to see whether he’s excited by the interaction.
The most important football question will be whether and to what extent Rodgers will participate in the offseason program. Anything other than “absolutely, positively, I’ll be here for everything” will be a disappointment, frankly. Now that the Jets have caved to the Packers, they need him there, in an effort to get himself comfortable with the rest of the team and (perhaps more importantly) to get the rest of the team comfortable with him.
Jets G.M. Joe Douglas opted not to answer that question on Tuesday, fearful of putting words in Rodgers’s mouth. It’s smart, because Douglas surely knows from paying attention to Rodgers in the past that he could get upset based on things others say about him. And while Douglas also said that the offseason program is largely voluntary, it would be nice to think that Rodgers will volunteer to help himself and the team that is paying him $60 million this year to be as good as they can be.
It also will be interesting to see whether Rodgers’s frustrations with the Packers come through. Does he think the Packers wanted too much for a player who was never going to play for them again? Did he ever suggest he would just show up and collect his money, even if it meant being a backup to Jordan Love? What advice would he give the Green Bay organization for having a better relationship with Jordan Love?
Then there are the non-football questions, given Rodgers’s willingness over the past few years to talk openly about multiple issues. There’s the whole “I’ve been immunized” imbroglio, a cat-and-mouse game he played with a press corps that didn’t catch his deliberate choice of a term other than “vaccinated.” There’s Rodgers’s belief that “Big Pharma” instigated the media to vilify him, given that the Jets are owned by Johnson & Johnson heir Woody Johnson.
There’s the recent effort he made to suggest that the government shooting down mysterious flying objects was aimed at distracting attention from the looming release of the Jeffrey Epstein client list.
Finally, there’s the topic that will surely resonate in New York/New Jersey like nowhere else -- the possibility that Rodgers is a 9/11 truther.
The questions asked of Rodgers will be driven in large part by the reporters who get in. The notice sent Tuesday by the Jets makes it clear that reporters had to apply for credentials.
While the easy explanation is that they have only so much space, it’s also possible that some who would potentially ask questions a little too pointed for the team’s liking won’t get in.
Soon enough, we’ll hear what the assembled reporters have to ask. It should be unlikely any press conference Rodgers has ever conducted.
