Jets: Aaron Rodgers goes after Sean Payton in latest interview
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn't having a rival head coach talk about his offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett. On Sunday, the four-time MVP fired back at Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who had previously gone after Hackett and the Jets in an interview with USA Today. "It made me feel bad that someone […]
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn't having a rival head coach talk about his offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett. On Sunday, the four-time MVP fired back at Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who had previously gone after Hackett and the Jets in an interview with USA Today.
"It made me feel bad that someone who's accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure that they have to take another man down to set themselves up for some sort of easy fall if it doesn't go well for that team this year," Rodgers told Peter Schrager on NFL+. "I think he needs to keep my coach's name out of his mouth."
Recently, Sean Payton talked about the Broncos' recent failures during Hackett's short-lived head coaching regime.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason — the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.”
While some of Payton's criticisms were certainly fair, it's been widely seen as a violation of the NFL's unwritten rules as he's a coach himself, not a media member. Perhaps the habits he picked up during his PR tour as he searched for a job in the league are proving harder to shake off than he expected.
But when Payton really crossed the line was when he called out the Jets for their "decision" to be on HBO's Hard Knocks. Never mind that the NFL makes that call and not the franchise itself. Something that Payton clearly knows yet chooses to ignore while taking shots at Hackett and the Jets.
“We’re not doing any of that,” Payton added. “The Jets did that this year. You watch. ‘Hard Knocks,’ all of it. I can see it coming. Remember when (former Washington owner) Dan Snyder put that Dream Team together? I was at the Giants (in 2000). A young coach. I thought, ‘How are we going to compete with them? Deion’s (Sanders) there now.’ That team won eight games or whatever. So, listen… just put the work in.”
Rodgers makes a great point. Why did Payton, a Super Bowl-winning coach, go out of his way to make these comments? Is he preparing for an "easy fall," as the new Jets' quarterback suggested?
Rodgers also said that Hackett is "arguably my favorite (on the field) coach that I've ever had in the NFL." To see Rodgers publicly go after Payton will fire up the Jets just as much as the historic pay cut he's taking to play in New York.
And you know that will be noticeable in Week 5 when the Jets travel to Denver to square off against the Broncos. Start drawing up the "Keep my coach's name out of your mouth" T-shirts, please.
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Featured image via Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
