Tiki Barber: Aaron Rodgers Isn't Cut Out For New York Media

The football world awaits Aaron Rodgers' exit from the dark house he's hanging out in right now, but the conversation around his potential future continues unabated. It did so on Tiki & Tierney yesterday as Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney discussed the possibility of Rodgers ending up with the New York Jets. Barber observed that Rodgers might have a hard time with the notoriously tough New York media if he can't handle the attention he's receiving in Green Bay.

Now, we can all acknowledge that the NYC media's boogeyman status has faded in the last decade due to the fact that there is nothing the Post can say that hasn't already been said in much more vulgar terms on social media. Getting clowned by a dumb pun on the back page of a newspaper that millions of people will see remains a degrading experience, I'd imagine, but it does pale in comparison to the hundreds of death threats all athletes get in the replies to their tweets every day. If an athlete has thick enough skin to deal with that they have thick enough skin to answer questions from reporters that might be slightly more pointed than it would be in other cities.

All that said, Rodgers' outburst about insiders earlier this week does suggest that his issues run deeper than just being sensitive. He seems to hate the information economy as a concept, that Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter are paid well to report things about his life because that's what people are interested in. That would theoretically not bode well for any extended stay in New York City, a place where even the tiniest bits of gossip are hammered over and over again on radio and television all hours of the day.

But, again, we come back to the idea that Rodgers and other athletes of his stature have heard much worse. I, for one, welcome the idea of Rodgers facing off with intrepid NYC reporters who are more than willing to spar with him in hopes of a quality headline. Then we'll find out for sure if Barber was onto something here.