By now, we know all of the reasons why the Jets have to take this big swing with Aaron Rodgers. They’re hoping that he can do for them what Tom Brady did for the Bucs. And what Matthew Stafford did for the Rams. They know he has a lot more left than Peyton Manning did when the Broncos won their first Super Bowl since John Elway, even if Peyton didn’t have a whole lot to do with that by the end.
At this point, even people in outer space know why the Jets are doing this, why they have to do it, as they attempt to become something more than a football irrelevancy, not just in the league, but just around here.
But the adolescent idea that this is suddenly Super Bowl or bust for this particular Jets team just happens to be bananas, whether Rodgers is here for a year or two or even more than that.
Start here, because it’s as good a place to start as any:
Since Rodgers played in his one and only Super Bowl 12 years ago, he has gone 0-for-4 in NFC championship games, against Seattle and Atlanta and San Francisco and Tampa Bay. And the Jets? Since they won their one and only Super Bowl 1,200 years ago, they happened to have gone 0-for-4 in AFC championship games, against the Dolphins in the mud, against John Elway one time in Denver, against the Colts and the Steelers when Rex Ryan was the coach. In the case of Rodgers and the Jets, it might end up being the one about the irresistible force and the immovable object. Unless they’re both the immovable object. And that object is history. His and theirs.
Don’t get me wrong: I want this to happen, and not just for Jets fans, just for the entertainment it’s going to provide, and the must-see-ness of it all. I want it to happen even though it still might not. There’s always one big qualifier here: It’s the Jets. Things don’t just go sideways for them, they often go right into a ditch. If you don’t believe that, look at the last two quarterbacks they saw as wishes to build a dream on:
Sam Darnold.
Zach Wilson.
But let’s say the deal goes through, and Rodgers does becomes the No. 12 they’ve been looking for since Joe Namath was No. 12. We can already see what a …read more
Source:: The Mercury News