Aaron Rodgers has said that he was tearful in the locker room after tearing his left Achilles tendon four plays into the Jets’ first game of the 2023 season. But, as Rodgers has told the story before, he texted a doctor and started thinking about what was next.
He had previously left out one key part from that tale: Rodgers thought his career might be over when it happened.
“I was heartbroken sitting in the locker room on Sept. 11 thinking my career might be over and that’s how I’m going to go out,” Rodgers said recently on the “I Can Fly” podcast, where he also acknowledged publicly for the first time that he was considered to be the vice presidential candidate for Robert F. Kennedy’s independent campaign.
“I was really thinking, ‘This is it,’” Rodgers said. “You don’t come back from this injury.”
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Rodgers has said that he was leaning toward retirement when he went into his “darkness retreat” following his final season with the Green Bay Packers. But when he came out, he said, he requested a trade to the Jets and rediscovered his love for football. He had an “incredible offseason experience” and called his summer with the Jets “absolutely beautiful and special and deep and rich and yummy, and just incredible.”
Then, the injury happened — and the Jets season fell apart. A team with Super Bowl aspirations threw its hands up, rolled Zach Wilson out at quarterback for the rest of the campaign and finished 7-10 for the second straight year — and out of the playoffs for the 13th straight year, tied for the longest skid in sports.
“One of the most heartbreaking nights of my life, when I played four plays,” Rodgers said. “Talk about an ego death.”
As for that stretch where the NFL world had to consider the possibility that an active NFL quarterback might pursue a bid for the White House, Rodgers reiterated his backing for Kennedy and said that his own inexperience as a politician might be a good thing rather than something to be criticized.
“How’s that worked out so far? How’s that worked out in our government?” Rodgers said before criticizing President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Donald Trump, the former president who easily won the Republican bid. “The country’s in a bad place and it’s not going to get better with ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’ who can barely put a sentence together, if that’s even him,” Rodgers added, using a quip for Biden that he has used in previous interviews. “It’s not going to get better I don’t think with Mr. Trump, Mr. President Trump, who had four years to do it and kept Anthony Fauci in charge.”
Rodgers said that when the possibility of him running with Kennedy was publicly raised, he was “attacked” by the raising of questions about his opinions about a mass shooting in 2012.
“There was a third-hand account or something. They’re terrified. They’re terrified of people that think for themselves that aren’t controlled,” Rodgers said on the podcast. “I’m not beholden to anybody. I have a contract. I can get cut at any point. I have very few sponsors now. They’re all people that I really believe in and there’s some sort of equity investment in it. But I’m not controlled. Nobody controls my messaging. Nobody controlling my social media. Nobody can control me. You know, I think for myself. I speak for myself. And that’s dangerous to an establishment that wants more power, control and obedience.”
The Jets have gone all-in this offseason on building a better roster around Rodgers — and one better suited to survive if he were to get injured again. They added a better backup quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, fortified the offensive line by adding Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses and John Simpson, added a high-caliber (though injured) wide receiver in Mike Williams and added some other…
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