The Jets sent a draft pick to the Green Bay Packers for a starting quarterback. That was in 2008, the passer on the move was Brett Favre and the transaction ended poorly. Thankfully for New York, they only gave up a fourth rounder for the future welfare defrauder. However, it appears history could repeat itself but with more draft capital involved.
Rumor has it the New York Jets are willing to trade multiple first round draft picks for Aaron Rodgers. Joe Namath is also already onboard. The only thing standing in the way of this happening is the salary cap and possibly some folks in the Packers’ front office. Those obstacles could easily be overcome. But let’s make one thing perfectly clear.
The New York Jets should not trade draft picks for Aaron Rodgers.
Not for football reasons, mind you. You can make a case for or against the deal using on the field reasoning. Honestly, that should be the least of anyone’s concerns regarding this potential transaction. The unintended consequences of the trade are what need to be considered.
Rodgers playing in New York would be a field day for the media. It would be the NFL equivalent of giving a hungry dog a bone. Our lives would be non-stop coverage of this partnership. Does any rational football fan really want that?
Look no further than Favre’s stint in the Meadowlands for proof of how awful this could be. He dominated coverage throughout the 2008 season. And that was pre-Twitter and social media. The Wrangler jeans spokesperson wasn’t doing podcasts or stirring things up on his own either.
That makes it a best-case scenario. Should the New York Jets trade first round draft picks for Aaron Rodgers, we would be looking at a media storm surpassing Tim Tebow’s lone season in the Big Apple. That may have happened more than a decade ago, but it still gives me nightmares.
In case you pushed it out of your memory, 2012 was wall-to-wall Tebow coverage. Entire episodes of NFL Live were dedicated to him. SportsCenter was going to live Jets training camp cut-ins. It was one of the most ridiculous things in sports media history.
Yet here we are, about to make the same exact mistake, only worse. Three hundred days of ‘Rodgers does New York’ would be soul crushing. At least Tebow was trying not to be a distraction. We know the immunized one is going to go out of his way to ensure all anyone talked about was him.
If Aaron Rodgers is traded this offseason, let’s all pray to the football gods he is shipped to any other team. Okay, any other team besides the Cowboys.
Keep Reading: Mike White deja vu proves NFL talking heads are really the worst
