It took all of four offensive snaps for the lights to go out in New York. All the excitement around the Jets’ new season evaporated when Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn achilles that will end his season. At 39, Rodgers came to the Jets (their stadium is in New Jersey but this is a New York team) with a little tarnish but far more talent, football IQ, and promise than any Jets quarterback probably ever. For the last few months he seemed to be everywhere in New York – grinning from the stands at Knicks games and the US Open, attending Broadway shows and charming his new teammates on HBO’s Hard Knocks. He instantly became the nucleus of the franchise, the player that was supposed to inspire his teammates and catapult the historically fleabitten Jets not just to respectability, but to the postseason for the first time since 2010.
But the anticipation around this Bills-Jets opener turned into an instant nightmare for Jets fans. Rodgers is one the NFL’s most omnipresent figures, and news of his injury left the whole league shaken. Even the most cold-hearted Chicago Bears fan wouldn’t have wished this on the former Green Bay Packer. The look on Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s face – and the eerie silence at MetLife Stadium as Rodgers sat on the turf after his injury – said it all. The Jets season felt over before it began.
