Last week, Aaron Rodgers made an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show where he essentially confirmed that he wants to play for the New York Jets this upcoming season. And in the same call, we also heard of an interesting exchange that Rodgers had with ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
As rumors circulated about Rodgers’ likely move to the Jets last week, Schefter reached out to Rodgers to do what a top NFL news breaker is supposed to do: get information from the source.
Rodgers wasn’t too thrilled to hear from Schefter and responded with a text that told Schefter to lose his number. He also sarcastically complimented Schefter for trying.
Confirming Aaron Rodgers’ report: pic.twitter.com/XRhhd58Qm5
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 15, 2023
NBC’s Peter King wanted to hear more about that exchange, so he asked Schefter about it. And really, it was as simple as Schefter following through with basic reporting duties.
Schefter said:
“I’ve had his number for a while. I never once used it. Trey Wingo reported [last Monday] he was ‘hearing’ that Rodgers to the Jets was done. The day he did it, ESPN was going live from 3 to 5 on free agency. Everyone was saying Aaron Rodgers to the Jets is done. We’re on the air for two hours. I call the Jets, I call the Pack, I call Rodgers’ advisers. No one’s saying anything. So, I’m sitting there on the set with Dianna Russini. ‘Should I text Rodgers?’ She said, ‘Yeah, text him.’ At 3:35, I texted him. I say, basically: ‘Have you informed the Jets that you’d like to play there? I wanted to open it up to you.’ He didn’t respond for maybe 10 minutes. So then I called the number, got sent to voice mail. Then he texts me, ‘Lose my number. Good try tho.’ That’s all. He’s the one who says the media’s getting it wrong. I wanted to go to source and get it right. That’s all. I was just trying to do my job.”
Rodgers has often been one to blame the media for manufacturing certain narratives, but it really doesn’t help his case when he dismisses a reporter like that. Schefter didn’t do anything wrong there at all.
