Because he is Aaron Rodgers — a relentless attention-seeker who moonlights as a future Hall of Fame quarterback — we can never quite avoid him in the news. The man last took snaps in early September and remains a consistent fixture in headlines because he would seemingly enter a fugue state if he left the spotlight for a solitary moment.
Rodgers has kept himself relevant by continually hinting that he could legitimately return from an Achilles tear in just over a few months. Never mind that, per WebMD, the typical Achilles tear recovery time for an average human being with bog standard ligaments and tendons is 4-6 months at full activity (though it can take up to a year to return to full strength). No matter how he might deny it, Rodgers — who turns 40 in early December — is still a normal human being with the same fragile ligaments and tendons as the rest of us.
Nevertheless, this nonsense story persists because Rodgers knows how to play puppeteer with NFL media (which includes me writing this story about it, I know). During a Tuesday episode of the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers professed that his (unlikely) return from an injury named after the fatal flaw of a Greek warrior rests on how he continues to heal moving forward.
Perhaps more importantly, Rodgers said part of his (again, unlikely) return hinges on where the Jets stand in the AFC playoff push. Dearest readers, the Jets are currently 4-7 and in 15th place in the conference. Tim Boyle is their starting quarterback. They score less than 15 points a game and remain a massive burden on their impossibly loyal fans.
Put another way: see you in September 2024, Aaron!
Aaron Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee Show that any potential return this season will depend on both his health and the Jets’ playoff possibilities. pic.twitter.com/jkMRYgEIfP
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 28, 2023
The Jets’ hopes of turning the 2023 campaign into a memorable one likely ended when Rodgers’ Achilles snapped in Week 1. Frankly, it is remarkable he has managed to keep some of the limelight despite everything. That is talent, no matter how grating it can be. But even Rodgers has to know Gang Green is terrible without his services and will already be a sinking ship by the time he considers “returning.”
Shout out to the awful Jets.
They’ve probably kept us from talking about the secondary part of Rodgers’ life — playing professional football — until next fall. Well, that is until Rodgers drops another soundbite about how he’s “thinking” about something and everyone drops what they’re doing to listen.