Aaron Rodgers is hoping to lead the New York Jets to another win when they host the Denver Broncos on Sunday, but the star quarterback insists he does not have any added motivation because of his history with Sean Payton.
When Payton was first hired as the head coach of the Broncos last year, he unloaded on the team’s previous coaching regime, which was led by Nathaniel Hackett. Rodgers came to Hackett’s defense and said Payton should “keep my coach’s name out of his mouth,” among other things.
The Jets then beat the Broncos during the regular season. Rodgers, who was sidelined after tearing his Achilles, was quick to take a shot at Payton on social media.
Apparently Rodgers is now over it. A reporter asked Rodgers on Wednesday if he has thought about Payton’s comments while preparing to face the Broncos in Week 4. Rodgers called the beef “old news.”
“No, that’s old news. We’ve all said things that we’d like to take back. Some things have been said and taken out of context, I’m sure, from time to time, but I honestly haven’t thought about it until you just brought it up,” Rodgers said.
Aaron Rodgers has not thought about Sean Payton's comments on Nathaniel Hackett from last year ahead of Jets-Broncos this weekend:
"That's old news. We've all said things we'd like to take back." pic.twitter.com/QKtiTjgcCc
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) September 25, 2024
Payton was essentially bullied into backpedaling from his comments about Hackett, so perhaps that was enough for Rodgers.
In addition to New York, Rodgers and Hackett worked together in Green Bay when Hackett was the offensive coordinator of the Packers from 2019-2021. There have been rumblings about the relationship between the two not being as strong as it once was, but Rodgers has repeatedly denied that.
