SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Aaron Rodgers won’t come running out of the tunnel with an American flag to thunderous applause at an electric MetLife Stadium on Monday night. But after all the darkness that followed him from the demoralizing moment his Achilles tore, through the self-doubt that accompanied him at the start of the rehab, through a 40th birthday he did not get to celebrate on the field with his teammates …
Here comes Aaron Rodgers.
Here comes Aaron Rodgers one year later through the tunnel at Levi’s Stadium driven to defy the cruel football gods and the skeptics who refuse to believe that there is Super Bowl Life After 40 unless you are Tom Brady.
Here comes Aaron Rodgers one year later, clinging to the belief that he can even now recapture his Hall of Fame greatness of yesteryear one year later and carry the weight of a tortured franchise on his shoulders all the way to New Orleans and Super Bowl LIX.
Here comes Aaron Rodgers one year later, burning to prove to himself if not others that he is still the right man at the right time to save the Woody Johnson-Joe Douglas-Robert Saleh regime.
The Comeback Kid — at age 40.
“To tear your Achilles Week 1 at the age of 39, 40, and to recover as fast as he did, and to come back and have the aspiration to put a ring on every finger in this room, if we do that,” veteran defensive tackle Solomon Thomas told The Post, “it would be the greatest comeback of all time.”
He didn’t have to come back. He could have reconsidered retirement. It takes a man with mettle of steel and an unyielding self-belief to accept, even embrace, the responsibility that has been bequeathed to him. And to keep on keeping on with this desperate chase to capture a second Super Bowl championship that has been so elusive for him and even more elusive for this Jets franchise.
“It’s gonna be fun Monday night,” Rodgers was telling his teammates over and over all week.
It was a sweet honeymoon while it lasted, remember? Everyone swooning over Rodgers on “Hard Knocks;” Rodgers soaking up Celebrity Row cheers at Knicks and Rangers games at the Garden; Rodgers grooving at the Taylor Swift concert at MetLife Stadium; Rodgers joining a group of teammates to see “MJ The Musical;” Broadway Joe Namath offering to unretire his 12 jersey so Rodgers could keep what he wore in Green Bay; Rodgers being gifted former Packers teammates to join him; Rodgers showing his commitment by taking a $35M pay cut.
The honeymoon lasted all of four plays.
Now, finally, it begins again, déjà vu all over again and all that, and it begins with a playoffs-starved fan base holding its collective breath.
Because all of the 2024 eggs are in Aaron Rodgers’ basket.
The Future Is Now basket.
The Playoffs Or Bust basket.
From the moment he walked into the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, Rodgers has raised the standard of everyone in the organization. He has served as franchise quarterback and part-time GM, head coach and offensive coordinator. When he speaks, everyone listens. He is treated like football royalty by his owner, by his front office, by his coaches and by his teammates.
All well and good.
Perhaps this time, starting with the powerhouse 49ers, we get to see what all the fuss is about.
Perhaps he can be every bit the outlier that Brady was when he led the Bucs to the Super Bowl in his first season with them.
No one knows for sure.
The burden of proof will be on him. His fourth and last MVP season came in 2021. He threw for less than 4,000 yards for the first time in five years in 2022.
It was inspirational to his teammates watching Rodgers attempt to become a medical marvel in time to lead a playoff charge that never was, and it has been surreal for everyone who calls himself a Jet watching him thread needles with an arm that defies logic and a beautiful football mind that defies defenses.
He has thrown 7,661 regular-season career passes.
He has thrown one regular-season pass, one incomplete pass, as a Jet.
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