There are a few things we need in life: food, shelter, love, and, occasionally, the satisfying spectacle of seeing bad people get what’s coming to them. It’s a rare sight these days, in a world where Donald Trump is somehow still competitive in the polls despite being a morally reprehensible, corrupt criminal, where the richest man alive uses his billions to prop up that same corrupt criminal, and guys like Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, and Ted Cruz remain comfortably in power.
But sometimes, we get lucky. We get to see a bad guy flame out in spectacular fashion. And right now, all eyes are on New Jersey, where Aaron Rodgers’ career as the New York Jets quarterback is imploding in real time. And let’s be real: the man is 40. He’s had a Hall of Fame career. He has a Super Bowl ring. But the truth is, nobody likes the guy anymore.
That’s a problem when you’re supposed to lead a team. If you’re talented enough, people will tolerate it, just like Hollywood puts up with assholes as long as they bring in box office money. Aaron Rodgers has been coasting on that grace for years, despite the fact he hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 2011. His undeniable talent hasn’t masked his most glaring flaw: people just don’t want to play for him. It’s the difference between Rodgers and guys like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. Brady and Manning owned up to mistakes. Rodgers? He makes excuses. He gets people fired. He did it in Green Bay, and now he’s doing it in New Jersey.
As his skills deteriorate with age, his toxic leadership is laid bare. He’s not the guy to rally a team for a comeback. He’s not even the guy who can fire up his teammates with some tough-love yelling. Instead, he looks like he’s rehearsing his post-game excuses before the game is even over.
The Jets have a seriously talented roster. Sauce Gardner is arguably the best cornerback in the NFL. Garrett Wilson is a top-five wide receiver, and Breece Hall is one of the best running backs in the league. The defense—before they inexplicably fired Robert Saleh—was among the best in the NFL. The only thing they needed was a decent quarterback.
Enter Aaron Rodgers, who was supposed to be the magic fix for the Jets’ chronic quarterback woes. But after tearing his Achilles on the fourth play of his first game, Rodgers spent the rest of the season sidelined, ranting about conspiracy theories on Pat McAfee’s show. In his absence, the Jets relied on Zach Wilson, a quarterback who’s, frankly, a disaster. By the seventh game last season, the Jets were 2-5.
After seven games this season with Rodgers? They’re 2-5 again.
And it’s getting worse. The latest debacle happened in Pittsburgh, with Donald Trump of all people in attendance, against a Steelers team led by a washed-up Russell Wilson. Wilson, who’s been a benchwarmer for the last two years, struggled most of the game but still managed to put up 37 points against what was once an elite Jets defense. Rodgers? He led his team to a whopping 15 points.
Despite the Jets pulling out all the stops—trading for one of the best wide receivers in the league and Rodgers’ old teammate, Davante Adams — Rodgers has been a trainwreck. He’s thrown seven interceptions to ten touchdowns. For context, in his 19 seasons as a quarterback, Rodgers has only thrown more than seven picks five times in an entire season. He’s done it in just seven games, with 10 more left to play. His quarterback rating is the worst of his career. And in that Jets helmet, he looks like someone’s middle-aged dad trying to relive the glory days, tossing the ball to a bunch of guys half his age.
He’s bad. The Jets are bad. And they’ve invested so much in Rodgers, yet they’re no better than they were with a decade’s worth of mediocre Jets quarterbacks. Watching him throw into traffic, overshoot wide receivers, and get picked off as the Jets lose to one underwhelming NFL team after another has been the most entertaining storyline of this season. And as former Jets quarterbacks like Sam Darnold, Joe Flacco, and Geno Smith thrive elsewhere, it only makes Rodgers’ decline that much sweeter.