Floyd reveals Jets fans threatened him after Rodgers’ Achilles injury

Floyd reveals Jets fans threatened him after Rodgers’ Achilles injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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The “Monday Night Football” showdown between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season might be one both teams would like to forget.

For the Jets, they lost star quarterback Aaron Rodgers to a season-ending injury four plays into the game, while the Bills lost a heartbreaker to backup quarterback Zach Wilson.

One player who remembers the emotional matchup well is new 49ers defensive end Leonard Floyd, who will face off against Rodgers and the Jets in Week 1 on “Monday Night Football” again at Levi’s Stadium this season.

In speaking to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on the latest episode of “The Adam Schefter Podcast,” Floyd recalled his sack of Rodgers that caused the veteran signal-caller to tear his Achilles.

“What I remember is just getting the sack, man,” Floyd told Schefter. “That’s what I remember. And after the sack I pretty much didn’t know he was hurt or whatever. I just remember playing football, just a regular play. Getting a sack on a quarterback, grabbing him, bringing him down. And it was just a normal play and he ended up getting hurt.

“I kind of got a lot of backlash from it, the fans were going crazy at me over him being injured. And I’m like, I’m just playing football. Like I ain’t really trying to hurt him or whatever. It was a play they had cut-blocked me and he was still holding the ball and the more he held the ball I was like ‘yeah, keep holding it. I’m going to sack you.’ He ended up getting hurt and I felt bad he got hurt because I always wanted to play against him. I want the best in Aaron Rodgers, I want the best version of him. It was a good play for me, bad play for him.”

Floyd didn’t realize Rodgers had been seriously hurt at first and assumed the then-39-year-old was taping up his ankle on the sideline. However, the longer that Wilson played, it became more clear that Rodgers’ injury was serious. For that, Floyd, who has great respect for Rodgers, felt bad.

However, Jets and NFL fans did not take kindly to Floyd’s sack and sent the veteran pass-rusher heinous messages over social media.

“Just threats, you know,” Floyd revealed. “‘I’m hoping the worst for him,’ basically. I kind of didn’t pay no mind to it, I’m using it as my motivation for this game. That’s what I’m using it as. But yeah they were talking crazy.

“Like ‘I hope you die,’ ‘I hope something happen to your family.’ It was just a whole bunch of different fans just [messaging] me and I’m like ‘dang, I’m just playing football, I didn’t want to hurt him.”

All Floyd did was his job and unfortunately for Rodgers, the freak injury ended his first season with his new team before it barely had started.

Now the two stars will face off again in Week 1 under the bright prime-time lights as both Floyd and Rodgers look to establish themselves with their new teams.

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