It is not unusual to see Aaron Rodgers trying to be the center of attention. Even after his injury, the quarterback makes constant statements that draw the spotlight to him. That’s why it’s strange to think that something could keep him sleepless by night, but it seems that’s how it’s been in the last few weeks.
Just last week, the New York Jets signal-caller told Fox Sports that he was looking to return to the field this season to show that he is capable “of coming back faster from that Achilles tear than any quarterback ever.”
Fans and analysts criticized this statement, considering it another example of the player’s egocentric character. However, just on Monday, NBC Sports’ Peter King provided a diametrically opposite angle on Rodgers’ rush to get back on the field.
According to the analyst, Rodgers“has pangs about how much the Jets bent their organization, team, and locker room to his desires when the Packers traded him to New York.”
Jets restructuring around Rodgers
Even before the four-time MVP signed with New York, head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas made sure their new hire was absolutely comfortable with his offense.
To do this, they not only hired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett but also secured the services of Allen Lazard, Tim Boyle, and Randall Cobb, all of them former teammates of Rodgers in the Green Bay Packers.
Now, according to King, Rodgers is feeling guilty, and that’s why he’s doing his best to return to action in four months, when the best-case scenario for rehab from a torn Achilles tendon is six months.
Is Rodgers willing to risk his integrity?
In this regard, the analyst indicated that “If he can be sure he is reasonably recovered, without a significant risk of re-tearing the Achilles, I think he’d strongly consider playing, whatever the Jets’ record is.”
“I think he may feel a personal need to come back to a team that remade itself for him and is struggling incredibly with terrible quarterback play since he was lost in the first game of the season,”King said.
However, there are more distrustful voices who consider it too coincidental that a story that turns Rodgers into a kind of martyr has come out just a few days after a statement that made him look like an egocentric person who only thinks about his image and his personal glory.
