The Jets have a serious problem with leaks. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers complained about it last year, and he was asked about it again on Wednesday — a week after a leak emerged that owner Woody Johnson suggested benching Rodgers after Week 4.
Does Rodgers think leaks are still a problem?
“One hundred percent yes,” Rodgers told reporters.
So how would he fix it?
“I think it, you know, it starts with figuring out what they are, and putting a stop to it,” Rodgers said.
Said Rodgers last year, regarding a leak that quarterback Zach Wilson was reluctant to play when the team tried to un-bench him, “I think it’s chickenshit at its core, and I think it has no place in a winning organization,” Rodgers said.
Figuring out the leaks and stopping them is far easier said than done. (It’s ridiculously simplistic to put it that way. “Aaron, how would you keep a bomb from going off?” . . . “I think, you know, it starts with finding the bomb and figuring out how to defuse it.”)
It’s human nature for employees in dysfunctional organizations to be tempted to leak. The best defense to the dynamic comes from running an operation that is working well at every level.
It also helps to hire and retain employees with the ability to resist the lure to leak. During his Tuesday interview with Pat McAfee, Rodgers expressed confusion (again) as to the motivation for individuals to share sensitive information with outsiders. Even when things are going well, certain individuals will hope to curry favor with reporters and/or, at the most basic level, act like big shots because they know things.
One way to identify leaks is to leak false information to specific individuals, and to watch what happens next. Remember the 2018 report that Condoleezza Rice was a candidate to coach the Browns? Some still believe this was part of an effort to smoke out a Cleveland leaker.
Still, it’s impossible to plug all leaks. And in a market like New York, where plenty of people are trying to get folks on the inside to talk, it becomes even harder to ensure that everyone shuts up.
