Aaron Rodgers stays in the headlines

We're down here. We got college basketball. We got football.

I got the hurricanes with all sorts of injury problems. But man, you got the circus coming to town if the Jets and Packers can ever work out compensation on a trade. Your thoughts on the Aaron Rodgers experience coming? It really, Adam, and thanks for having me on the show. It's unbelievable. I feel like we've been Aaron Rodgers talk for 24-7 for weeks and weeks now, and I don't think I'm far off on saying that that's what we've been. I can't believe it. We dealt with things that when you go to school for communications and journalism, you're like, wait, we're going to have to break down a darkness retreat? What exactly is that?

Or hallucinogens? What are we doing? But this is where we are. I thought his appearance on McAfee yesterday was, listen, I think he's an interesting guy. I think he thinks he's a very bright guy. I think he's self-motivated and somewhat selfish. But here's the thing, and this is what people, maybe they do understand it, if he's still a really good quarterback, it's going to be great for the Jets. If he's lost a little bit off the fastball, it's going to be a disaster. Because I think when you're Aaron Rodgers, and you're playing in Green Bay, and there's four reporters, and granted the NFL is a national league, but there's four reporters, and then I'm going to follow you to dinner and take pictures at wherever you go for lunch.

It's a different animal than New York. When you succeed here, you're Marc Messier. When you stink here, you're Joey Gallo. So I think he'll be good. I still think he has a lot left. He's probably, right off the bat, the best quarterback the franchise has ever had. I'm even including Joe Namath.

This guy is a phenomenal quarterback. But it comes a little baggage, and I'm convinced the deal gets done. I have no doubt the deal gets done. It may not be immediate, but it'll get done.

We talk about it on my show all the time now. It's like, what do you expect? Is this a team that's going to go to the Super Bowl? Are they going to get into the playoffs? The AFC is absolutely loaded. So the Jets, Aaron Rodgers, it's like they gave us a forever gift because it's going to be a ton of conversation. Oh my gosh, this will be the most Jets talk you've ever done.

Dave Rothenberg from ESPN New York here on the Adam Gold Show. If you put Aaron Rodgers on last year's team, there's no question they're a playoff team. I don't know if they're at the Bills level or at the Bengals or Chiefs level.

It's not that I don't know. I know they're not, but they're pretty good. They might be fourth choice among the AFC teams.

I think you're 100% accurate. Now you say they're not at the Bills level, and maybe they're not. You could be right, but they beat the Bills with Zach Wilson at quarterback.

Zach Wilson and I watched him play every game. Adam, he stinks. Watching him is a painful experience as a football fan.

He's horrendous. They went 7-10. Remember, they were 7-4 and lost their last six games.

If Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback of the Jets last year, he threw for what, 26 touchdowns on a down year? There's no question they're a playoff team. Do they beat the Chiefs? Probably not. Do they beat the Bengals? Probably not.

They probably win a playoff game and go into Kansas City or Cincinnati and lose a competitive game, but there's no doubt that that's a playoff team last season. Dave Rothenberg is here on the Adam Gold Show. First of all, you mentioned Joe Namath before. I don't know if this has been hashed out already. I'll bet Joe Namath would say, yeah, Aaron can wear number 12.

That's fine, because nobody else does. Has that been figured out as far as we know? Yeah. Yeah, so I guess Namath was asked a while back if Aaron Rodgers were to come to the Jets and play in New York, could he wear your number 12? But he said, because Joe's a wonderful man.

He's very gracious. He said, absolutely he could. And then Rodgers yesterday with McAfee kind of was asked that, and hemmed, and hawed, and made it about himself.

And eventually it sounds like, yeah, you know what, that's what's going to happen. I actually think it would be cool if he was respectful enough to say, I'd love to wear 12, it is my number, but I don't want to wear it because it's the all-time Jet Joe Namath. But I'm sure when it's all said and done, he'll be running out of the tunnel in number 12.

There's no question he will. I love Joe Namath as a guy too, but I also think that he might be the most overrated Hall of Fame quarterback ever. But he won Super Bowl III and he was absolutely box office and all of that. And I grew up at Shea going to Jet games. I saw Namath's last year. We had season tickets. Namath's last year at Shea Stadium, which was I think 74, and that's when I became a Jets fan.

I have since been cured of that, Dave. So I am a recovering Jets fan. And now, and it's funny, I became an Aaron Rodgers fan for a while and then he went off the reservation. Speaking of which, who's more interesting, Aaron Rodgers or Kyrie Irving? Oh boy. I mean, let's be honest though, there's a lot of similarities between those two guys, right?

A lot of similarities. I'm surprised that Kyrie Irving wasn't on Aaron Rodgers' wish list, right? I want Mercedes Lewis, I want Allen Lazard, and I also want Kyrie Irving.

I think Kyrie is worse and I think more difficult because here's the thing. Aaron Rodgers, and listen, he has his things. There's no doubt about it. He's never gone missing. The coaches never had to have a press conference. Well, where's Aaron Rodgers?

I don't know, right? He's never shown up on a Zoom call when he's taken time away from the team. So he's never had a coach actively fought for a coach to be fired, that we know the way he did with Kenny Atkinson, and run his own practices. Like Kyrie Irving is a... And you know what else with Kyrie Irving? He's never available. Either he doesn't show up or he won't get vaccinated or he's injured. I mean, he didn't play last night because he's injured again with Dallas now.

I think Rodgers is a handful. I think, in my mind, Kyrie Irving is a cancer. So I think similarities, but Kyrie much worse for me. Yeah, also, and both guys think they're really, really smart.

I think they are both really smart. I think Kyrie makes no sense when he talks. I at least think Rodgers makes sense.

The word salad kind of has a beginning, middle, and end. And Kyrie, it's just a continuous circle that nobody understands what he's getting at, but he sounds good doing it. Dave Rothenberg from ESPN New York is with us here on the Adam Gold Show. Let's just assume Rodgers is good, and I think he is. And I think last year was largely mediocre at the end because of his thumb injury.

It's tough to be a quarterback with a thumb injury. So let's assume he's good. Is Rodgers being good, good enough to overcome the Jets and whatever cloud hovers over that franchise?

I think so. I mean, their defense is very good, right? Sauce Gardner is an elite cornerback. Quinnen Williams is a terrific player. They're very talented defensively, and I thought the defense was good for the most part last year until they kind of got worn down and almost gave up when they knew the offense couldn't do anything. Offensively, Garrett Wilson is a star. Lazard, they brought in, right? He's very good. They have a couple of tight ends that are good. Breece Hall, if you remember, Adam, was considered to be Rookie of the Year candidate before he got hurt and went down for the season. Now, you know, you also can say year one off of that ACL injury could be, you know, kind of getting back to your prior form.

It may take some time. But to me, the key with the Jets is going to be the offensive line, because the offensive line was lousy last year. And, you know, Vera Tucker is going to come back and he's very good.

But they do have a lot of question marks. Your left tackle is Makai Becton. And I've heard he slimmed down. He's supposed to look terrific.

But, you know, until I see him go out and really produce, I just don't believe it with him. So they need to fix. And this is the weird thing is Joe Douglas was an offensive lineman. It kind of made the statement of when I come here and take over, the first thing we're going to fix is offensive line.

But years later, it's still not fixed. So you can have the beautiful shiny toys, but unless the old line is good, I think you're going to be missing something that's got to be their top priority. I'm of the mindset that they're going to wind up keeping the 13th overall pick in this year's draft. They have to address the offensive line. But I think there's a chance that, again, I'm not going to sit here and guarantee anything because it's the Jets. And I don't know. And the AFC is so loaded. But I think there's a chance that this is a phenomenal season for the Jets. Yes.

All right. Final thing for Dave Rothenberg. Bigger story today.

Aaron Rodgers or Edwin Diaz and his knee injury. The Venture X-Card from Capital One gives you premium travel benefits. Perfect for seeing Taylor Swift, The Heiress Tour presented by Capital One.

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See capitalone.com for details. Jeep is a registered trademark of FCA US LLC. I can't even believe that, you know, if you're because a lot of fans and you know this because you're from the New York area because Giants, Yankees, Mets, Jets, right? Yeah.

So can you imagine that dichotomy like you're probably opening champagne last night. We got Aaron Rodgers. He's a Hall of Fame quarterback.

He's thrown for 4000 yards, 10 times. Our organization has done it once like you're doing backflips of what you have now acquired. And then you're lying in bed last night and you find out that Edwin Diaz goes down with what looks to be a catastrophic injury. And I we don't have the update on it as of yet, but it looked it looked gruesome. And to make matters worse, Adam, it happened in the postgame celebration.

Yeah, it's not even like something terrible happened technically in the game. It's in the postgame celebration. Guys are weeping.

His brother was crying like something uncontrollably. So we talked about both. It's amazing that this is even something we're discussing.

I would say Rodgers had a little more juice, but you have to understand that for the last, I'm not even kidding you, the last month, six weeks, we have been of the four hours a day, I'm on the air probably three hours plus Aaron Rodgers. Today was the first day. Today was the first day that there was a lot of something else. And that's something else. I think a potentially catastrophic injury to, in my mind, clearly the best closer in baseball.

No, no question about it. And the way it happened was just so innocent. They were just it wasn't it wasn't like Grammatica wasn't like Martin Grammatica jumping up in the air and doing a scissor kick.

They were just hopping up and down on two feet. All of a sudden he's laying on the ground, whatever. I'm a Mets fan. I'm kind of numb to it all because all I could think of is every pitcher the Mets have ever had. Every great young pitcher somehow comes down with some sort of an elbow shoulder injury. Heck, Matt Harvey, who had his own issues away from baseball, had back to back. He had first he had the elbow, then he had the the what, the artery issue. And it's crazy that that is a maybe that the two things are related.

Maybe there's an ancient Native American burial ground over Flushing Meadows. I don't know. But it's it's it's just a nightmare. It is a nightmare. It is terrible. And maybe a great thing happened that an awful thing had to happen to balance it out. But boy, oh, boy, to have your star closer, go down in that fashion. It's really devastating. You know, what was it? Griff from Men in Black 3 says where there is death, there will always be death.

And maybe that is the force in the universe balancing it out. Dave Rothenberg from ESPN New York. I appreciate it, man. I appreciate your time. Have fun with Aaron Rodgers every day for the rest of the year. I appreciate it. Enjoy the tournament.

I'll talk to you soon, Adam. The Venture X card from Capital One gives you premium travel benefits. Perfect for seeing Taylor Swift, The Heiress Tour presented by Capital One.

Oh, I do love her. Earn five times miles on flights and 10 times miles on hotels through Capital One Travel. Enjoy your stay in suite 13. Well, 13? That's Taylor's lucky number. The Venture X card from Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details.