Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is not afraid to speak his mind, especially when someone crosses him. That was the case with the New York Jets this offseason when they released the four-time NFL MVP. How the Jets handled the whole situation did not sit well with Rodgers.
Rodgers will return to MetLife Stadium to face the Jets in Week 1. For the first time, Rodgers revealed his thoughts on facing his former team to start the season.
"That's the way it goes sometimes," Rodgers told Kyle Brandt of NFL Network. "Did they have any inside information? I don't know. Who were they talking to? I don't know. But, start off with the Jets, then play Seattle , where DK (Metcalf) just came from… But I'm excited. Get to play the Jets, play the Packers , play the Bears, play the Vikings. It'll be fun."
According to former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth, who is a close friend of Rodgers, the future Hall of Fame quarterback went on a long-winded rant about how dysfunctional the Jets' organization was during his two-year tenure.
"Aaron and I had a conversation about when he was with the Jets was how abysmal their running game was and how schematically it made no sense," Schlereth said on The Stinkin Truth Podcast in June. "I started the conversation, and then Aaron went on for about a 25-minute diatribe on just their run game."
During an interview with Pat McAfee in April , Rodgers recounted flying to New York to meet with Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, and that meeting going very poorly.
"I think we're gonna have this long conversation," Rodgers said. "I've flown across the country. Twenty seconds in … I'm talking to the GM about something and [Glenn] leans to the edge of his seat and goes, 'So, do you want to play football?'
"And I was like, 'Yeah, I'm interested.'
"Then he says, 'We're going in a different direction at quarterback.'"
Glenn is not worried about the media attention heading into the Week 1 game against the Steelers at MetLife Stadium.
"This is the NFL. And, to me, every game there's a lot of noise because they're so critical — as far as wins and losses," he said. "We want to try and accumulate as many wins as we can, and I don't care who that opponent is."
Of course, the Jets will have a quarterback revenge game of their own on tap. The Steelers' first choice at quarterback this offseason was to re-sign Justin Fields , but when the Jets offered a two-year contract with $30 million in guarantees, the Steelers balked at the price, letting Fields walk out the door and turning their sights on Rodgers.
Like his head coach, Fields had no reaction to seeing that the Jets are playing his former team to open the season.
"That's who we play Week 1. There wasn't really a thought to that," Fields told reporters .
Rodgers would love nothing more than to get back at his former team. The same could be said for the Jets organization, as well.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Aaron Rodgers Reveals Thoughts on Facing Jets in Week 1
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