A dizzying array of rude statements can be justified with comments like “I was just answering a question” or “I was just being honest” or “I was just trying to help” or whatever the person who said the rude thing says afterwards. to justify their rudeness.
On Monday night, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was wrong publicly criticizing receiver Mike Williams for taking the wrong route on the play that became the Bills’ interception. Rodgers made matters worse by trying to get his way out of it with word salad during his weekly appearance with Pat McAfee.
“I didn’t call Mike out for anything other than his responsibility and the details of that play,” Rodgers said. “I have a lot of love and respect for Mike. He’s doing some nice things for us. That game he wasn’t in the right position. You can make more of that if you want, but we all need to be held to a standard.”
He’s right. But being held to a standard and being publicly berated are two different things.
Rodgers would not want to be called out at a news conference by interim coach Jeff Ulbrich for not throwing the ball away when Williams ran the wrong route. Those things are best handled privately.
And who cares if Rodgers was just answering a question? He’s (presumably) smart enough to respond without throwing his teammate under the bus.
“It was just a miscommunication,” he might have said. “I shouldn’t have thrown it.”
But if your best argument for being considered an all-time great isn’t your Super Bowl win but your touchdown-to-interception ratio, then it’s probably hard to take public responsibility when the number is lowered by a teammate who did something stupid. .
Rodgers was still wrong when he did it. He can say whatever he wants about it now, but he knows he was wrong. And his teammates know he was wrong.
The message to them is simple. You better be careful, friend; he is I’m going to get you next.
