For a while, just a little while, Aaron Rodgers thought his career had ended four plays into his very first game with the New York Jets.
That was one of the things revealed in a 2 ½-hour “I Can Fly” podcast this week.
“I was really thinking, ‘This is it. You don’t come back from this injury,’” Rodgers said, on the podcast.
The former Green Bay signal-caller was traded to the Jets, and debuted against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 11 on “Monday Night Football” to fanfare – until he was injured four plays into the game.
“Talk about an ego death,” Rodgers said, of the injury.
He attributed his research on the late Kobe Bryant’s injury and subsequent repair and rehab to helping him feel better. “…the doomsday of, like, my career is over kind of started to go away.”
The Associated Press’ Dennis Waszak Jr. recapped the podcast here (Jets’ Aaron Rodgers briefly thought playing career could be over after tearing his Achilles tendon).
There is this: Rodgers’ attitude is much more positive currently, or at least at the time the podcast was recorded.
He even called football ‘his happy place.’
“I’m excited about playing again,” Rodgers said. “I love playing. I fell back in love with the game and then I had it taken away after four plays. I miss being out there, I love competing.
“Football is my happy place. That’s where I feel most in control of my athletic ability. I missed that last year, I really, really missed it. My heart was broken. I’m excited about taking the field one more time and — not life or death — going to battle with my guys.”
