“New York coach Robert Saleh’s thousand-yard stare at the prospect of Zach Wilson taking over again at quarterback said it all: Six months of joy and excitement dissipated in a matter of moments.”
There are rare times I’m embarressed to be a Packer fan. Charles Martins infamous cheap shot on Jim McMahon was a huge one. Hearing and watching some idiot Packers fans taking joy in Aaron Rodgers injury last night is another embarraament. C’mon Packers fans, we’re not Eagles fans. Be better.
Yeah. One of my coworkers is a big Packers fan (grew up in Hawaii, so he was gonna have to pick a random team).
He’s hanging his head in shame.
Ouch. I hope that doesn’t end his career. My dad popped an Achilles tendon playing squash, and it was a year before he could really use it again.
Seahawks fan here. I absolutely loved that Russell Wilson looked awful when he went to Denver. It also helped that Seattle had their first pick after that year, and the Broncos’ misfortune turned it into a #5 pick. (And for a while it even was looking like it was going to be the #1 pick, but Denver had a tiny bit of success late to spoil it.)
If Russell was badly hurt in the first game, that would have been awful. I don’t hate him, and don’t want him hurt or ruined. I just don’t want him to succeed elsewhere. I’d be ashamed of anyone who claimed to have been a Seattle fan for the decade he led the team and was the best QB in the franchise’s history, and then immediately wished him harm when he wore another uniform.
So me, personally, I despise Rodgers. He comes across as a jerk, a diva, and a whiner, and has used his platform to push dangerous medical information as the country (and much of the world) was dealing with a crisis. I don’t feel bad for him in the slightest. But if I were a Packer fan who had watched him bring my team a lot of success, and benefited from it, I would have a completely different perspective.
(I was also a huge Sonics fan in the '90s and cheered Shawn Kemp, even though I knew he was something of a dirtbag both on and off the court. He just happened to be one who was the biggest star of my team, so I cheered him anyway. So I never resent a fan who cheers someone who might be an awful person, I’ve done it too.)
On the other hand he was one of the better Jeopardy! guest hosts. Surprisingly, as I agree with your comments.
FWIW the Seahawks are my team, and I also agree with you about Russell Wilson.
Definitely agreed. I know that Rodgers wore out his welcome among many Packer fans (including me), but taking delight in an injury is uncool.
Yeah. Rodgers has now denied us a full season of sucking. No one wanted that!
Same field that the 49ers had a few injuries on - perhaps this will start the end of artificial turf?
That field in North Jersey must be cursed. Giants drop a goose egg along with other embarrassments and Jets lose their latest. Still, Jets did win. I wonder what was up with Josh Allen on the Bills.
This is the part that makes me most ambivalent about the man himself (as much as I too liked his Jeopardy hosting week). He’s likely caused real physical harm to real people (aside from the people who signed up and are paid to be harmed, I mean!).
Seahawks seemed to like it.
At least it was really good to them that year. 
It’s worth pointing out that they put in a brand new (different) artificial turf this year at MetLife stadium in response to all the injuries.
Natural grass doesn’t really work in this location because of all the concerts and other events.
Per the article I linked:
"You plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it’s feasible. I’m sick of this…Do better!” Bakhtiari is referring to the fact that FIFA mandates real grass for the World Cup, which several NFL stadiums — including MetLife — are hosting when the soccer tournament comes to North America in 2026.
For a limited-time event, sure, but it’s not sustainable.
And dumb Packers fans at that, considering that they needed Rodgers to play 65% of Jets snaps this season in order for the Packers to get the Jets 2024 1st round pick. Now they will get their 2nd round pick. Huge difference.
Of course it is. It’s purely NFL cheapness. Players are pawns.
It’s really not. It’s not like they haven’t tried grass before, and they didn’t cheap out at all on trying to make it work. It was a miserable failure, ending up being mud spray-painted green late in the season.
Eh, Seattle uses FieldTurf. That stadium does not have a bad reputation. I don’t see anyone griping that it’s a bad surface.
Of course, the World Cup will be in Seattle in 2026, so the real grass will be coming there too. There is no real decision over whether it will be permanent or temporary. My guess is that it will be permanent. The city wants the stadium to have grass. I mean, it’s Seattle, of course they do.
I’m skeptical that it will be better. State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ has real grass, and I swear it’s like a death zone for players. People are constantly getting hurt there, multiple Seahawks played their last game there. It’s slippery as hell. And it’s not just me saying that.
Grass isn’t just objectively better than artificial turf, regardless of what players insist. A bad field is a bad field, and it goes beyond being artificial or natural.
I remember the Giants players being ecstatic when they ended the three-season natural grass experiment after the 2002 season. In 2003 they were over the moon on how great the new FieldTurf was compared to the shitty grass.
Before 2000, Giants stadium had that horrible artificial surface that was essentially concrete. Like the old Vet stadium in Philly.
If they can prepare a grass field suitable for the World Cup games, including the final, why can’t they for NFL games? FIFA simply won’t allow an artificial turf field. What if the NFL did the same? Teams would figure out a way. I tend to lean towards the later point made (can’t see who made it on my IPad) that the data probably shows no statistically significant difference between injuries on a turf vs. grass field. The turf injuries seem particularly grisly compared to grass, but I’ve seen plenty of cleats stuck in real grass leading to torn ACL’s and MCL’s.