Former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn faced a big decision upon taking over as the head coach of the New York Jets.
The Jets had veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers under contract heading into the offseason, but Glenn and new general manager Darren Mougey had the opportunity to decide whether or not to retain him.
Ultimately, Glenn and Mougey elected to part ways with the future Hall of Fame quarterback and signed Justin Fields in free agency. Rodgers remains an unsigned free agent.
During an appearance on 'The Pat McAfee Show' Thursday, Rodgers explained that he is mulling retirement and is dealing with off-field concerns. However, he also shed some light on his perspective of his final days with the Jets' organization.
After Glenn's arrival, Rodgers explained that he flew to New York to meet with the new head coach. According to Rodgers, Glenn quickly left the room to get Mougey into the room with him upon the start of their meeting.
Once he returned with the GM, Rodgers said that Glenn wasted little time getting to the point of the meeting.
"He leans to the edge of his seat and goes, 'So do you want to play football?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm interested.' He said, 'We're going in a different direction at quarterback.' I was kind of shocked. Not shocked because I didn't think that was a possibility. Listen, of course they want to move on, that's totally fine. But shocked because I just flew across the country, you could've told me this on the phone."
Rodgers explained that Glenn and Mougey wanted to consult with him on how to construct the messaging of his release, to which the veteran replied, "I don't give a s**t about the message."
He said that Glenn told him he was concerned about the potential of others tuning him out during team meetings with Rodgers in the room.
"(Glenn) said, 'I don't want to be up in front of the room saying something and have guys looking back at you.' And I said, 'What does that even mean? Are you assuming that I would be in the back of the room during a team meeting undermining what you're saying?'"
Rodgers told McAfee that the meeting that he expected to last hours turned out to be around 15 minutes before he left the room. He is now in California dealing with personal matters, but he has visited multiple NFL teams throughout the offseason.
"There was no pleading like, 'Please have me on the team.' I didn't want any part of that," Rodgers said. " It was already a debacle, that whole situation was crazy. I think that was a little rogue by the head coach (Glenn) because I talked to the GM (Mougey) later about it, Christopher Johnson called me."
