No, the New York Jets did not give Aaron Rodgers an ultimatum about going on The Pat McAfee Show, per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.
According to Rapoport, the Jets actually asked Rodgers to use a little more discretion on McAfee and to be around more during offseason workouts if he were to continue in New York.
However, over the course of multiple discussions between head coach Aaron Glenn, general manager Darren Mougey, and Rodgers, it became apparent that this was not the right direction for either side.
Rapoport’s report seemingly contradicts previous statements by The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, who claimed that the Jets had told Rodgers he could not appear on McAfee and would be required to attend OTAs and minicamp in order to remain with the team.
Rapoport tried to clarify that he was not refuting but merely contextualizing Russini’s words.
Here were Russini’s actual words. You can judge for yourself (particularly after watching the video for tonal inflection) whether or not “aggregators” took them out of context or misinterpreted them as an ultimatum.
“When they had conversations with Aaron Rodgers about what the future would look like, ‘If you’re going to be part of this team, you’re going to attend all of the training camp, you’re not going to do Pat McAfee interviews anymore.’ They had a conversation with him of, ‘If you were to stay here, here’s how we would want it to be.’ So this, to me, is Aaron Glenn getting control back.”
The Jets have already publicly parted ways with Rodgers. Sooner or later, his name will fade from the Jets’ media narrative, as well.
