Just throw him the damn mic—unmuted, of course.
Former New York Jets wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson decided to get in on the increasingly popular, low-risk, low-reward trend by ripping current Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“You decide to take your ball and go home because you [weren’t] getting your way,” Johnson said on FS1’s “Speak” this past Monday. “You quit on your team, man. I’m not going to be nice to Aaron Rodgers like that. I thought he was on a mission to convince them [the Jets] that he should come back. Based on what he did yesterday, I don’t want to be [anywhere] near him.
“He took his ball and went home,” the infamous rookie football author added. “That’s exactly what he just did. He took his ball and went home because he wasn’t getting his way, and the Bills [were] kicking his rear end.”
Rodgers, 41, has thrown for 3,623 yards and 24 touchdowns to 10 interceptions on 63% of his passes completed. Of course, in a year like this, with the Jets currently sporting a 4-12 record, statistics are hardly important.
Rodgers hasn’t enjoyed a worthwhile campaign, and his latest rough outing resulted in a 40-14 drubbing by the AFC East-rival Buffalo Bills. Considering his polarizing nature, Jets fandom has erupted in chaos regarding how the quarterback has played and what his future should hold with the franchise.
Keyshawn, of course, understands this atmosphere.
The former Jets’ weapon pounced on a Rodgers’ postgame quote regarding how the process unfolded to get Tyrod Taylor into the mix during extended garbage time.
“I mean, it was 33-0, [and] we were sitting there, I said at some point, [we should] probably go to Tyrod [Taylor] here, huh?” Rodgers said after the Jets’ latest disheartening loss. “Then the next play [the Bills] threw a screen for a touchdown. So it was 40-0.”
Johnson refers to this as “quitting” on his team. While some Jets fans are nodding their heads up and down in full agreement, others are shaking it east-west, sprinkling this one into a large pile of nothingness that exists in the fictional town named “Meaningless.”
Whether it’s Sauce Gardner, Breece Hall, Garrett Wilson, or even Aaron Rodgers, attempting to evaluate any player under this current Jets situation is a fruitless venture. (Playing under a leadership-less structure coupled with an archaic team vision must be stored in the back of the mind at all times.)
Sure, some evaluation is required, and keeping an eye on the details is warranted, but to use the “quit” word now, after many selfless actions in the last two years (volunteering for a pay cut, hanging around the team/practicing while injured, and telling the world he’s willing to rework his contract again, in the event he returns to the team for the 2025 season, etc.) is a bit much.
Aaron Rodgers deserves criticism, no doubt, but let’s calm down, shall we? It’s tough to hear it at this stage of the game, coming from a man who called Wayne Chrebet the “team mascot” shortly following his rookie season.
It is, indeed, richer than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos combined.
At the end of the day, it’s just another day in New York Jets football land, and Keyshawn Johnson remains the familiar zebra whose stripes never change.
