New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have told the world he had nothing to do with the firing of the team’s head coach Robert Saleh, but the caller isn’t fooling Stephen A. Smith.
On Tuesday, Saleh was fired from his position atop the Jets suddenly and unceremoniously by team owner Woody Johnson.
The next day, Rodgers went on The Pat McAfee Show to tell the world that he was not the reason for Saleh’s firing, calling him “a very good coach.”
On the “ridiculous” accusations that he instigated the firing, Rodgers fumed: “Any of those accusations bother me and they are patently false.”
“It’s interesting how much power people think I have, but I don’t.”
Aaron Rodgers has claimed he was completely unaware of the Jets’ plans to fire Robert Saleh.
Smith isn’t convinced that Rodgers’ hands were completely clean, and he criticized the quarterback on Thursday’s episode of ESPN’s ‘First Take.’
“If you’re Aaron Rodgers, yeah, you didn’t walk into the office and say, ‘I want him fired.'” You didn’t walk into the office and say, ‘I want him out.’ That may be true,’ Smith said.
‘But don’t act like you were completely oblivious to what was happening, what the situation was like, how things were eroding before our eyes and that the owner wouldn’t notice all these things.
And somehow, when they were talking on the phone, they were talking about the chocolate chip cookies and the milk they were drinking. Just stop the nonsense.
‘It’s surprising how difficult it is for people to simply tell the truth. It’s not that we are completely oblivious and unaware of what the hell is going on.
“And when Aaron Rodgers tried to give that impression, that’s when I think the credibility factor went out the window.”
Rodgers said he had a conversation with Johnson the night before Saleh was fired, but denied that Saleh’s employment status came up in their conversation.
ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith called that statement by Rodgers “nonsense.”
Saleh was fired from his job after going 20-36 over the course of four NFL seasons.
Rodgers has a reputation for feuding with his coaches in the past, including former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who is now in charge in Dallas.
The quarterback has also been misleading about non-football related things, such as his Covid vaccine status.
In 2021, Rodgers told reporters that he was “immunized,” but it was later revealed that he had never received the vaccine. Then he regretted having done it.
Saleh was fired Tuesday morning in the middle of his fourth season with the Jets. New York is off to a 2-3 start after back-to-back losses, but could clinch first place in the division with a win Monday night over the Buffalo Bills.
