Well, that was perfectly exhausting.
And now comes the fun part.
Now comes Aaron Rodgers’ opportunity to prove that all the drama, all the diva-ing, all the suspense, all the silly emotional turmoil he inflicted (wittingly or unwittingly) on the Jets and their torture-addicted fans was worth it, assuming the i’s get dotted and the t’s get crossed in the negotiations between the Jets and the Packers.
It can work out that way, you know. It can be the second-greatest Jets story ever told behind the time that other No. 12, fellow named Joe Willie, lifted the Jets and the entire AFL on his back one magic-frosted afternoon in Miami, the only time the Jets have ever been the last professional football team standing in a season.
That was 19,786 days ago.
In 334 days, Super Bowl 2024 will be played in Las Vegas, and the Jets’ eternal march toward happiness will have surpassed 20K days. And if the Jets are playing in that game … yes. This will all be worth it. The drama. The draft picks. The sky-is-falling assumption that Rodgers will forget everything he ever knew about brilliantly throwing a football once he changes shades of green, a by-product of so many destitute decades.
This is why the Jets do this deal — and why, after Rodgers told Pat McAfee’s YouTube audience that he is planning to play next year, as a Jet, they must close this deal.
This is why Woody Johnson drove this bus — hell, he all but drove the plane to California — to pursue, to woo and to convince Rodgers to extend his Hall of Fame career in New York City. They do not do it seeking relevance. They do not do it hoping to be a feisty, feel-good, 10-win wild-card entrant who gives a spirited but doomed effort in a single playoff game.
The Jets do this because they believe Rodgers can end 20,000 days of misery. They do this because they see Rodgers as the engine that can propel a fine team from promising to prosperous. There is no substitute here. They need Rodgers to finish off the blueprint that seemed to be blossoming 15 years ago when they brought Rodgers’ Green Bay predecessor, Brett Favre, east and Favre had the Jets at 8-3 and legit contenders until his arm fell apart.
Give Johnson this: for years the angriest of Jets fans have loudly wondered if the franchise were a mere rich-man’s toy for him, something to talk about at polo matches and dinner parties.
This is a familiar lament of fans who grow ornery at their favorite teams’ owners. The Wilpons used to hear that all the time, and so has Jim Dolan. The new generation of Steinbrenner ownership has certainly (and somewhat remarkably) heard it plenty from Yankees fans. Hell, even John Mara heard it while the Giants were spiraling the five years prior to this one, and no single family in New York sports has spilled more metaphorical blood in the name of its team than the Maras have for 98 years.
But Johnson was plainly displeased with much of what went on this year, frustrated by the wasted opportunity of a 7-4 start that careened off a cliff, and you half expected to hear Woody from Bedminster calling up “Tiki & Tierney” or “The Michael Kay Show” to rail about all of this, perhaps to reach out to Vac’s WhackBacks. He used the privilege of his position instead, flying to California to recruit his man.
And now he has, assuming he and his team can finalize the deal.
Good for him. Good for his team. And good for Jets fans if this all shakes out the way it could, if Rodgers has a New York run in him the way Mark Messier did from 1992 to ’94 after showing up with his five Stanley Cup rings, the way Reggie Jackson did in 1977 and 1978 with his three.
Could it go the other way? Hell yes it could. To appease Rodgers the Jets haven’t merely agreed to pay him his $59.5 million salary, they’ve seemingly agreed to acquire every ex-Packer going back to Paul Hornung and Don Hutson (though Rodgers told McAfee that isn’t the case). That sure smacks of the kind of unofficial assistant general managing that helped make the Nets the greatest spitshow in sports the past few years.
But if it works?
If it works, Rodgers will never buy a drink in this town again.
Woody will never have to defend how much he cares again.
And Jets fans will forget just how unpleasant the wait for the white smoke from the Florham Park chimney has been these past few days.
Yep. Now comes the fun part.
