Yesterday afternoon, Rodgers went on The Pat McAfee Show—one of the only media outlets he doesn’t actively say he despises—and said he intends to play in New York next season.

“It’s my intention to play for the Jets, but I’m still under contract with the Packers,” Rodgers said.

The first part of that sentence is the news everyone had been waiting for ever since Rodgers began his “darkness retreat” last month, but the second half of the sentence is the important part. The Packers still hold all the cards here. Albert Breer writes that Rodgers’s interview with McAfee gave Green Bay a “parting gift” in the form of leverage over the Jets. Now that he’s told everyone he wants to be a Jet, it would be a disaster if they can’t get a deal done. And, as Breer points out, Rodgers’s contract is structured such that the Packers can wait as long as they want before dealing him. His fully guaranteed $58.3 million option bonus can be exercised any time before Sept. 1.

The Jets are painted into a corner here, having already signed Rodgers’s buddy Allen Lazard for $44 million over four years and missed out on other quality quarterback options. So it sounds like Rodgers will be traded to the Jets eventually, in a move that might shake up the hierarchy of the AFC East while giving the Packers a chance to finally see whether Jordan Love is a capable NFL starter. But I’m less interested in the football ramifications of the impending move than what it means for North Jersey crystal shops.

Jets fans are about to be treated to the entire Aaron Rodgers experience. Yes, even at 39, he’s still among the best quarterbacks in the league, but the past few years have shown that his talents come with headaches. There was the whole ordeal with his intentionally misleading comment about his vaccination status. There was the 2021 press conference where he spent more than 15 minutes criticizing Packers management. Then there’s his repeated attacks on the media.

In yesterday’s appearance with McAfee, he took issue with a report from ESPN’s Dianna Russini stating that Rodgers had a “wish list” of free agents he wanted the Jets to sign. Rodgers incorrectly framed Russini’s report as saying he had “demands” for the Jets. Rodgers also told Adam Schefter to “lose my number” when Schefter texted him to ask about the players he wanted to bring to the Jets—and Schefter posted the screenshot to prove it. Concerns about players’ ability to handle the New York media are often overblown, but Rodgers has shown that he’s incredibly sensitive to any coverage that’s less than glowing. And now he’s set to move from a city with the same population as Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood to the nation’s biggest media market. How is Rodgers going to react the first time he ends up on an unflattering back cover of the New York Post?

On top of all that, Rodgers’s New York career is beginning with a prolonged trade saga that’s set to drag on for an indefinite length of time. But, given how the past few years have gone, could you really have expected this to go smoothly?

The best of Sports Illustrated

After other famous teams fell short, this year might be Houston’s best chance to capture a men’s basketball national championship, Pat Forde writes in today’s Daily Cover.
Speaking of NFL stars who are set to be traded, Gilberto Manzano ranked the best landing spots for Chargers running back Austin Ekeler.
Conor Orr likes the Buccaneers’ decision to bring in Baker Mayfield as Tom Brady’s replacement.
Kevin Sweeney thinks these 10 teams are most capable of making deep Cinderella runs in the men’s tournament.
After Mets closer Edwin Díaz’s freak injury during Puerto Rico’s celebrations, Tom Verducci argues that it’s silly to blame the World Baseball Classic.
The UConn women had an up-and-down season, and now keeping their Final Four streak intact is no certainty, Emma Baccellieri writes.
Pat Forde was at the Alabama men’s basketball team’s press conference, where star player Brandon Miller was accompanied by armed security.
Ja Morant, who was suspended eight games by the NBA yesterday, gave his first interview since the video of him apparently flashing a gun emerged.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tobin Anderson’s speech after beating Texas Southern in the men’s First Four.

4. Francisco Lindor’s mad dash around the bases after an error by Julio Rodríguez.

3. Trevor Zegras’s between-the-legs deke, leading to an assist. (Almost as cool as his between-the-legs goal last week.)

2. Stephen Curry’s diving layup. (He finished with 50 points but the Warriors lost to the Clippers.)

1. De’Aaron Fox’s game-winning three for the Kings against the Bulls.

SIQ

On this day in 1955, NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended which Canadiens star for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, leading to an infamous riot in Montreal one day later?

Bernie Geoffrion
Jacques Plante
Maurice Richard
Jean Beliveau

Yesterday’s SIQ: Twenty-six years ago this week, who became the first American-born NHL player to score 500 goals?

Pat LaFontaine
Dave Christian
Bobby Carpenter
Joe Mullen

Answer: Joe Mullen. Two weeks after his 40th birthday, the New York City native and Penguins winger reached the milestone in a game against the Avalanche.

Mullen grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on New York’s west side, a block away from the Rangers’ original home (the third Madison Square Garden, which was demolished in 1968). His dad, Tom, worked on the ice maintenance crew at the Garden, and Joe and his brothers would take sticks from the arena.

As Alexander Wolff wrote in a 1982 Sports Illustrated article, Mullen grew up playing roller hockey and didn’t learn to skate on ice until he was 10. Even when he started playing organized ice hockey, his team practiced on roller skates because they couldn’t afford ice time. But Mullen was far and away the best player in his Manhattan youth league and parlayed that success into a spot on Boston College’s team, and, despite going undrafted, signed with the Blues as a free agent following his college career.

In 16 NHL seasons with the Blues, Flames, Bruins and Penguins, Mullen scored 502 goals and recorded 561 assists. To date, of the 47 players who have scored at least 500 NHL goals, only four are American-born: Mullen, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk.

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