The Jets provided the NFL with another Tuesday surprise last week, when owner Woody Johnson fired G.M. Joe Douglas. On Tuesday of the current week, quarterback Aaron Rodgers addressed the situation for the first time with Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk.
Did Rodgers know it was coming?
“Well, I didn’t know,” Rodgers said. “I was on a plane about to head back to California and got a call. I love Joe. You know, I spent a lot of time with Joe. A lot of conversations. . . . And I really enjoyed our conversations. I’m disappointed because I had a hand in it. I had an opportunity to play better and keep him here.”
The news didn’t come as a shock to Rodgers.
“I can’t say I was fully surprised, though,” he said. “Because there was a helicopter [that] land[ed] at practice on that Tuesday, and I don’t know, I just felt like something crazy was about to go down. Maybe it isn’t crazy outside the building, but when the helicopter landed mid-practice, I was like . . . I just knew something might be going down here. And I was like, ‘Damn, I hope it’s not Joe.'”
That account meshes with Jay Glazer’s reporting from Sunday. The helicopter carried Woody Johnson. Via Glazer, Douglas said to interim coach Jeff Ulbrich after the helicopter landed and said, ‘Well, if they pull me off the practice, it’s been an honor serving with you.'”
And that’s what happened. Douglas was pulled off the practice field, and then he was given a pink slip.
