A surprising number of rude comments are justified by comments like “I was just answering a question,” “I was just being honest,” “I was just trying to help,” or by what the person who said the rude thing said after the fact. Possibly. To justify our own rudeness.
On Monday night, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was wrong to publicly criticize receiver Mike Williams for running the wrong route on the play that resulted in the game-clinching interception against the Bills. . Rodgers made matters worse during his weekly appearance with Pat McAfee by trying to get away with verbal salad.
“I didn’t call Mike for anything other than Mike’s responsibility and the specifics of that play,” Rodgers said. “I have a lot of love and respect for Mike. He does good things for us. He wasn’t in the right position on that play. Add to that if you need to.” We can all do that, but we all have to abide by the standards.”
He’s right. But adhering to standards and being publicly criticized are two different things.
Rodgers likely doesn’t want to be criticized by interim coach Jeff Ulbrich in a press conference for not throwing the ball away when Williams ran the wrong route. Such things are best handled privately.
And who cares if Rodgers was simply answering the question? He’s (probably) smart enough to respond without throwing his teammates under the bus.
“It was just a miscommunication,” he could have said. “I shouldn’t have thrown it.”
But if your best case for being considered the greatest player of all time is not your Super Bowl wins, but your touchdown-to-interception ratio, when you reduce that number because your teammates did something insensitive. It will probably be difficult to take public responsibility for this.
Rogers was wrong after all. Now he can say whatever he wants about it, but he knows he was wrong. And his teammates know he was wrong.
Our message to them is simple. You better be careful, buddy. Next time he’ll get you.
