Aaron Rodgers made his highly anticipated appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, 24 hours after Robert Saleh was shockingly fired just five games into the season.
The Jets quarterback called the idea that he wanted Saleh fired was “patently false,” and firmly denied the “ridiculous allegations,” despite talking with owner Woody Johnson the night before Saleh was fired.
Reacting to the interview in real time, BT and Sal weren’t buying a lot of what Rodgers was saying.
“Bullcrap. This reeks to me like the Montreal Screwjob, and Aaron Rodgers is Shawn Michaels,” Sal said.
“I don’t think he got Saleh fired. I don’t think it was Rodgers knocking on Woody’s door…however, to think that Rodgers doesn’t have power or input is just ridiculous.”
BT was in full agreement, believing that Rodgers didn’t blatantly call the team owner and demand that a head coaching change be made, but he does believe that the future Hall of Famer played a part.
“There’s no way I’m thinking that the owner and Rodgers had a conversation, and the head coach didn’t come up,” BT said. “I’m not buying that…even if it’s by two or three layers of an extension, he got him fired. Maybe as not as directly as some are making it seem. But think about this. Saleh was going to relegate Hackett to a different job and take away his play calling duties. Once Aaron Rodgers learned about that…I’m sure he flexed and voiced that displeasure. Maybe he didn’t overtly say to Woody, ‘You need to fire him,’ but he probably said something along the lines of ‘You better not let him do that.’”
Rodgers also downplayed the influence he has on those kind of organizational decisions, and that was something Sal strongly pushed back on.
“For Rodgers to say ‘I don’t know where the idea comes from that I have all this power.’ Dude, this is not made-up stuff,” Sal said. “The Jets bent over backwards, kissed your ass to get you in the building, brought in Hackett for you. Why is Allen Lazard, who can’t catch a cold, on this team? For you!”