Aaron Rodgers complaining about Jets' leaks amid Woody Johnson story misses the point

Aaron Rodgers addressed last week's bombshell report about New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, but not in the way you might expect.

Rodgers chose to talk about the report from The Athletic during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. But rather than talk about the contents of the report, which includes such gems as Johnson vetoing a trade for then-Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy because his teenage son, Brick, told him the wideout's Madden rating was too low, and his request to keep the last pick in the NFL Draft because he wanted to sign "Mr. Irrelevant" like Brock Purdy in San Francisco, Rodgers focused on something else: the leak that spawned the story.

“There’s definitely some leaks,” Rodgers said, per RJ Kraft of The Athletic, “There’s people that have relationships with people in the media. There’s motivations for writing stories it seems like and nothing is surprising at this point. There’s some interesting things that go on in every organization — some that would like to be left uncovered but it seems like here those don’t always get left uncovered. They get covered.”

He went on to explain how he didn't think it was normal for this kind of information to get out.

“It can’t be the norm that there’s so many leaks and so many people continue to have conversations whether its getting some sort of angle of revenge or even with people who are still in the building. The standard needs to be you are not creating questions for other people all the time. Leaking these things doesn’t become the standard."

Finally, the quarterback said that the leaking of information might be behind New York's on-field struggles this year.

“Obviously, what’s best for the Jets is not having these types of leaks all the time," he said "When that gets figured out, it will be a little easier to win. That doesn’t have a direct impact on the players on the field but it does have an impact on the culture and the chemistry and the overall energy of the building. That’s what needs to get better.”

Granted, Rodgers is in a bit of a no-win situation here. He can't come out and badmouth Johnson, lest it color other teams' perception of him ahead of his likely free agency. But since when has that ever stopped Rodgers from speaking his mind on anything at all?

And in this case, it's absurd. Saying that the issue in New York is that someone keeps leaking all of this damaging information to the press, and not the fact that the information and decisions exist at all?

This isn't missing the forest for the trees, this is missing the forest because someone told you there was a forest and you said "man I wish this forest wasn't so full of trees so I could see the forest."

The Jets' problem isn't that people told a bunch of stories that make Woody Johnson look like a reactionary know-nothing who makes personnel decisions based on rash impulse and what a teenager named Brick thinks is a good idea. The Jets' problem is that Woody Johnson continues to make decisions that make him look like a reactionary know-nothing who makes personnel decisions based on rash impulse and what a teenager named Brick thinks is a good idea.

The Jets wouldn't have a leak problem if there was nothing good to leak. If they ran their organization in a functional way, no one would have stories to tell about you bringing people from your investment group into the locker room, or about your teenage sons criticizing players after a game or usurping moments from the team.

If Rodgers wants to talk about what makes a functional organization, one that wins games and titles, that's where his focus should be, not on the people who told the stories.

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Aaron Rodgers' complaining about Jets' leaks for Woody Johnson report misses the point completely

By Sam Westmoreland | Dec 23, 2024