If Aaron Rodgers would have decided to run with RFK, NYJ would have been SOL at QB
In March, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers could be joining the ticket as the candidate for V.P. Rodgers said nothing about it until Kennedy decided to go in a different direction. In the interim, the Jets were in the dark regarding whether Rodgers would have played or not played while running for the second highest office in the land.
During his first press conference of the 2024 offseason, Rodgers was asked how serious the possibility became.
"I love Bobby," Rodgers said. "We had a couple really nice conversations. But there were really two options. It was retire and be his V.P. or keep playing. And I wanted to keep playing."
There was no follow up to that. Amazingly. (It sounds like the person who asked the question tried to ask another on the subject, but someone else launched into a question about offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.)
The next question, if there had been one, could have gone in several different directions. How close did you come to retiring? Did you consider playing and running? Did he offer you the position? How did this even come up? Are you planning to get into politics after you retire?
Would you have unretired after the campaign ended? Would you have come back in 2025? Do you really think you had a chance to win?
Did you communicate with the Jets about the possibility that they'd need another quarterback after free agency had begun and players had signed new deals?
Would you have really walked away from $38 million in fully-guaranteed pay?
(Also, do you think Sandy Hook was an inside job? Are you a 9/11 truther? And why do you keep talking about the COVID vaccine at a time when no one else is?)
Yes, that's how press conferences go. It's a group of reporters who bring a question or two that they want to ask, and the session jumps around from subject to subject with little if any depth.
Because he never gives interviews to anyone other than someone he likes and/or believes will give him plenty of space to say whatever he wants without any pushback, he says whatever he wants. On everything. And he never faces any real challenge. On anything.
The reporting that said Rodgers wouldn't be Kennedy's running mate didn't indicate that Rodgers made the decision. The reporting indicated that Kennedy made the decision, because donors didn't like the idea of Rodgers getting the nod. Today's press conference provided only one tiny sliver of clarification on the entire issue — Rodgers would have retired if he would have become the RFK running mate.
The topic indirectly came up again later, when Rodgers was asked about distractions. His press conference ended with Rodgers saying this: "The Bobby thing was a real thing. How it got out there, I don't know. It wasn't from me. Once the season starts, it's all about football."
It wouldn't have been about football if he'd been offered the position, and it he'd accepted. He would have, based on Tuesday's comments, left the Jets high and dry without a starting quarterback after the music had stopped on the 2024 free-agency quarterback carousel.
That's the real takeaway from his comments. If he'd been offered the position, and if he had accepted, the Jets would have been screwed at quarterback for 2024. (the possibility first came up on Tuesday March 12, and there was no clarity before the first phase of free agency ended that week.)
During these key dates, the Jets didn't know what Rodgers was planning to do, and they would have been forced to scramble to replace him at a time when plenty of viable options had already signed new contracts.
