The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, Welcome to the Season with Peter Scheger. It's the podcast where we cover the league every single day, three hundred and sixty five days a year, and we give you the most immediate and in depth analysis and reactions. We typically like to interview coaches, general managers, team owners, certain players, ex players, media personalities. Sometimes we just want the voice of the fans.
Last night was Monday Night Football. It was September eleventh. The Jets put on a show like no other show we have seen for a home opener for MetLife Stadium. There were celebrities on the field before the game, celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, celebrities such as Jake Paul, celebrities up and down, inside and out, football luminaries, hockey luminaries, NBA luminaries, celebrities in the entertainment field. Edie Falco was there.
We get to the start of the game and they turn the lights off and all of a sudden, the U two is blasting and there in the pitch dark coming out like a light that's forty years in the making is number eight, Aaron Rodgers starting from the tunnel with an American flag, and it is hard not to think this is one of the coolest things ever. And then the game starts. Bills get a first down, then
go three and out. The Jets get the ball and on the fourth snap of Aaron rodgers Jets career, this is what happens.
Takes the snap drops back the middle under pressure and he King's sack back to the thirty two yard gone by Leonard Floyd.
So the Bills get a big negative.
And Aaron Rodgers gets up with a limp. Aaron Rodgers right now, does it looked one hundred percent?
Right?
Well, that's a good light lit because you got Leonard Floyd the right He's gone down. Then Aaron Rodgers is sitting down in the field, he's hurt. Eleven fifteen to go in the opening quarter and Aaron Rodgers is injured on the sack by Leonard Floyd, and the Jets training staff surrounds him and sack. Wilson pops up and starts to get ready and take some warm up throws.
Look like you might have got that left ankle twisted as he went down and.
As we're taking another look at the replay, and it looks as if when Floyd dragged him down he toe picked a bit and Aaron Rodgers right now gingerly walking off the field.
With a trainer on either side. Rogers wouldn't take another snap after that. As we record this Tuesday morning, first thing, it has been confirmed. It's an Achilles' injury. That's the season end. There. There's no guarantee Rodgers will be back on the field next year for the Jets. It might all be over like that in a flash. Four snaps as a New York Jet, never completed a pass as a New York Jet, and after an off season like no other in New York, and for Aaron Rodgers, it
could be done. I bring on my producer, Aaron wang Kaufman erin. I didn't expect this to be our Week two podcast. I didn't expect us to devote it to Aaron Rodgers, but we are doing an instant reaction podcast. Where were you when you saw the injury and what was your initial reactions?
So I'm watching in my office and texting with my dad and with some friends as well, and and uh, you know, my dad and I are dissecting what the Bills are doing on offense, and then you know Jets have the ball and I was like, oh, wow, Rogers just went down. My dad's always like a few seconds ahead of me because he's watching on TV stream.
He's also older, and that's just how it goes exactly. They get faster internet.
And I was like, wow, that's not good, and like there were a lot of injuries on Sunday. You never want injuries at all, and I also don't want to see injuries to the team that we're playing against, like as Bills fans, like, we don't want Rogers to get hurt. You you want to win a real game. And it was it. It took the wind out of me, not even being a Jets fan, like rooting for the other team.
It was I don't know it. There were so many injuries already to think that we were going to get another one, and the biggest one was terrifying.
It was crushing. And I speak on behalf of NFL speak on behalf of a fan of New York teams, and I think I think now as a fan of Rogers, as a guy like he totally won everybody over this offseason and it was authentic, but I can mourn about it, you and I can dish about it. For this podcast, I wanted to go to the true fans, and I've got two of them. One of them is a world famous actor and comedian and a guy that you have seen on movies like The Bird Cage, on TV shows
like The Simpsons, where he plays about twenty voices. And he's also been on the season with Peter Schrager representing an optimistic Jets fan this past summer. A very different version of him, I'm sure we're getting in a few minutes here. It's the actor and comedian Hank Azaria. And in addition to Hank, I've got a friend named David who has been a Jets season ticket holder since nineteen sixty six. We've met in recent years at a Super Bowl event. David rolls in some pretty cool circles. He
knows a lot of NFL owners. He's also been to just about every Jets home game since they were in Shay Stadium till when they moved to Giant Stadium to what it is now MetLife Stadium. When you're a season ticket holder since nineteen sixty six, you've seen it all. I want to speak with David about what he saw last night in the building. But first usually laugh at him when he's doing things. There's no laughing here, mister
Hanka's Area. All right, we're about twelve hours removed from the injury in the moment that shook New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester, South Florida.
You name it.
There's Jets fans everywhere in one of my favorites, this guy here, we had him on in the summer. We talked about his Jets fandom echoes deep and we want the raw reaction. Hanka's Area. Welcome back to the season with Peter Schregg.
Thanks, I guess yeah, it's great to be here, Peter, really great, great reason. How are you feeling, honest genuinely still kind of in shock, like a shock, actual shock, like a life event shock. I was just telling your producer Aaron that there's certain Jets Mets nicks. Okay, there's certain moments in that journey. Mostly it's comical and it's sad sack, and you love the team and you know, you know, the aura that hangs over them is not great. You live with it and there are times when though
it's not really funny at all. The Mets collapse in seven was not funny, not fun actually depressed me for a couple of weeks.
I was there that was against the Marlins in the final game of the season, and I remember I was their unbelievable collapse.
Yeah, that whole three week collapse was brutal, and last year's Met semi collapse was somewhat reminiscent. This is all up there with you know, there's certain mo like you know, Charles Smith not being able to make that lay up again to Jordan Bowles, right, they just stay in your mind and you know this might be the granddaddy of them all.
This might be crazy.
Yeah, let's go through.
I mean, because we were texting at four a m. This morning, you and I were both awake, and you were the first person I thought of when this thing's going down, because we talked about it over the summer. But like the build up of the summer is one thing. The building last night, it's almost if you look at it's like a ghastly joke of Rogers coming out in the dark with the lights on nine to eleven with the American flag, and he played it. He never completed a pass.
No you couldn't. I mean, you know this old story about Red Fox, Peter Red Fox Herett was Sanford and Son, and you know that theme music was okay, that would when he played Vegas as a stand up, that would play him out. That was his intro music. It was famous in show business. We parodied it on The Simpsons one time. Apparently one night there was no audience for whatever is and there's like three people out there and
the gentlemen Red Fox and he comes out. He looks out at the audience, he goes three people, I'm not playing a show for no three damn people, and walked off and they played his music when they carted Aaron off. I heard the Red Fox music in my mind, I'm like, this is that. This is just insane. You know, you run out with a.
Foul Grandpa Simpson walks into Mo's with the hat and walks right out. Is that what we're thinking like that?
I think it was like that. That might be when we used it, but it was It's just absurd, it's crazy. And then I was thinking like, well, because I was half expecting him to get hurt this year. He's you know, he's not a young man, He's like, well, if this happened week eight, would that be better? And you know what the answer would be, Yes, it would have been better. Lucy would have gotten to see what was what I mean, it would have been almost exactly like Brett Favre went
eight and three before he got hurt for us. But Peter, it's just you know, you.
Know, I have a lot of Jets fans, and one of them text me like, I'm just convinced we can't have nice things.
Yeah, I texted you that too. Yeah, that's really no. You start to kind of believe it, you know, I don't actually wrote Mike Puma wrote a book about the Mets, and I wrote the forward and I wrote about being Mets, Jets, Nicks and how it's actually made me quite a negative person. It really has. It's affected me genuinely, like in business, you know, trying to get projects made in show business is very hard, and with the first sign of trouble,
I'm always like, well that's it. Whenever it's not going to happen, and my partners are always like, why are you so negative, I'm like, because I'm a Mets, Jets and Knicks fan, that's why. And they laugh, and I say, no, I'm not kidding.
I'm serious.
It's absolutely true. I have come to expect Aaron Rodgers' outcomes like that, like that's it, we're done, forget it, you know, and of nice things.
Not to rub salt in the wounds here, but like the thing that no one else was talking about that the Jets coaches who I speak with often were saying, is that Rogers would be there till eleven o'clock at night, like working with random backup running backs on, like getting the offense down. I reported this on Fox's pregame on Sunday. He did something called a firing line exercise where he would line up all the young players and they'd go through every hand signal that he could possibly do, and
they had to know it. If they got it wrong, they had to keep going till they got it right. Like he was so invested in texting was Sola this morning, and it's just like you feel for the fans, you feel for us, you can pity us, you feel for Rogers.
Actually, you know, I had a crazy journey with this because I disliked Aaron Rodgers by his end of the time with Green Bay. Between all that craziness that was going on there, and then the vaccination stuff and then
some other stuff. Right, I was like, man and being a Hollywood creature as I am, like, you know what, you know, what you don't need in most situations is diva energy coming like old man, especially old man diva energy like we just I was like, please just get me Derek Carr, please, which is a nice daddy presence in there, nice young fella who's gonna be a good
daddy and gonna work really hard. And I have a feeling that Derek Carr was going to really uh improve with a change of scenery, which we'll see if he does. And then Man Rogers completely won me over just because I didn't think he'd even show up for OTA's right, if he'd work with the young receivers, I mean even before hard knocks giving back all that money and everything
he did. And I'm like, I tweeted, I whatever I put out, whatever you young people do on social I put out this thing of he's gonna do this, He's gonna he's gonna recreate your namath for us when he runs off the field. I just totally bought and I just I fell in love with the guy, you know, and I was happy for him, happy Jets, happy for Sala. I was even happy for Woody Johnson, which takes a lot for me to get happy for that guy.
We talk about the humor and the gas and the stuff. It like they go to the box and what he's wearing, this ridiculous sauce gardener chain. Well, and it's just like that is so Jets. Like he doesn't take off the chain. He still has the ridiculous chain on and he's still caught up in the and it's just it is. It's the Jets.
It's Samuel Jets man. At bottom line is you'll look back at this right and you'll just say, Samuel Jets.
Fun well lasted. Now here's the thing. There is a whole season to play. You did beat the Bills last night. I'm not silver lining guy in this. It's almost secondary topic that they won. But can Zach Wilson just hold the fort down and rely on the run game and the defense and can we still be a playoff team?
I don't know, We'll see. I mean that sucks too. It's like if Zach was gonna feels like Zach needed a year or two, didn't if he was, and now he's thrown back into the fire, which will probably end his career because he probably not ready for it. There's my you know, sunny Jets outlook coming forward. But you know, I probably here's the thing about being Jets metchniks. When you predict doom and gloom, you're usually right. And well, now,
I guess we'll really see. To me, kind of looked the same last night, like I've you know, he played well, but I've seen him play that well. Yeah, but I don't know who else you bring in. Nothing else seems realistic right now. And I guess I'm a poker player. I was playing poker last night while this is going on. To me, Zach is an inside straight draw, I meaning four cards, you're outs with two cards to come. That's a sixteen percent chance. That's about how I feel about Zach.
He's an inside straight draw.
It's an incredible analogy. It's incredible. I'll leave you on this. You think back to the pregame. You've got Timberlake on the sidelines, you got Jake Paul being trotted out, you got all these luminary celebrities. Did you, in a little bit of a glimmer of your jets cynical mind, think this a little bit much before we get this game going. Let's just play football.
Oh.
I've felt the hubris of this for a while, I really have. I mean, all the super Bowl talk and I'm like, you guys, please, and I've been saying uh to anyone who listened. You know, I'll really just be happy if we play well over the first five six games. I mean honestly, you know, I mean, I want to go to the playoffs, but I really let's let's calm
down here for a second. Rogers usually starts slow, and he's not young, and I mean, so yeah, it was a lot, a lot of hubrists and I feel, I honestly feel embarrassed, literally embarrassed.
I feel stupid, all right, get into this because there is a you think about buying in after knowing, and you're you're coursened with this and you know this is what Jimmy and Jet Finn is and yet you let yourself get excited again. I feel that, you know.
It's even worse. I had to I had, I got a little I missed it, I guess mercifully, I had a school function. Sorry, it's loud. I had a school function and I had I got to the game about I watched it with my poker buddies the game last night. Got there ten minutes lad, I walk in smiling, and everybody's looking at me like, you don't know, do you. I'm like, no, I didn't see it, and you hadn't seen it. I walked in like five ten minutes after it happened, and everybody's like, no, what. And I was like,
and I thought they were, you know, poker guys. I thought they were kidding me. I thought they were joking, of course, and then I saw it was all too real, and you know, it was the saddest part was like a buddy of mine, who a couple of buddies just love ribbing me about you know, you know what's going to happen. You know what's going to happen with the Jets and the Mets. And even those guys didn't have the heart to to give me, to give me crap
about it. They were like actually looking at me with sympathy. I'm like, I think that's the worst part of all this is you looking at me like you feel bad for me.
Right, It's the first time like Patriots and Bills and Dolphins are like feeling bad for the Jets fans because even they can appreciate the human the feeling of letdown and just as horrible.
I mean, at least giant fans can't say nothing today.
What was worse winning and losing Rogers for the season or losing forty to nothing on national TV while you're wearing a blue shirt's doing a blue out.
I'd probably be I'd honestly be more embarrassed by that giant loss.
Personally, man, I feel you. I feel like you're the voice of thousands and thousands of fans, and you know, Jets fans they're all over La now, they're all over floor, like I met that when I let it do it, like New York fans are everywhere, and this one I felt like reverberated throughout the country. And you're the voice of it right now on the pod.
That said, I mean, it was a gutty win. I got to give them credit. I mean, that was amazing and it's just but how well that defense played, because last year they were great, but they four turnovers. They didn't get that many turnovers last year, you know, and it was amazing to see them busted up like that and get that gutty Win. Who knows. Maybe football is a crazy, crazy thing. Man, Stranger things have happened. Who knows what could happen this season.
So I was talking to coaches this morning from the Jets, texting them, and the real takeaway for me is like, all right, if Hackett had won, or if Todd Downing had won, or if Sala had won with Rogers, it's a great story. If these guys can do it with this team without Rogers after the deflation, now that's a really great story and it almost adds another chapter. So
there is a silver lining, cool wrinkle to this. If they could put it together, It's it's almost like, hey, we won one for the Gipper, but we also did it for ourselves.
Yeah, it was impressive. You gotta admit that they that was demoralizing, demoralizing and they throre down ten and they came back and won that game. I mean that's something that is, you know, proud of those guys on nine to eleven. I mean that was good.
Hanka's area, We love you, Thank you for coming on. I know you're busy and obviously this morning is not a fun and happy topic for Jets fans, and yet I felt like we needed to get your insurer actions.
Can I shack on a personal Notekay, I just got a hair looking okay, and I just the girl cut my hair. The young lady cut my hair, and she asked me, are you a senior? So that that was like insult to injury.
Today, Good morning, Hank.
I said, yes, I'm an old Jets fan.
It's good.
That's it. On that note, we love you man, thank you for joining. This is like a shive a call. In my culture, we call this and it wasn't enough just to have our guy Hank's area call in and give his fifteen minutes of sadness and dietract. I want to go to maybe the biggest Jets fan I know. It's my friend David. David has been a season ticket holder for many many years. He travels on the road, goes to games. He never misses a home game. And i'mlike, Hank,
David is actually in the building. David, how are you feeling this morning?
But today I'm daged in disbelief, but I'm not shocked. Go on, you knew he was on.
Explain it.
You knew he was gonna get Nick. You knew he was gonna get banned up. You have a porous offensive line, get it. A great Hall of Fame quarterback Aaric Argers, but not the most mobile quarterback. And I looked back in the top. So Douglas since day one saying I'm gonna build an offensive line.
I'm gonna build an offensive line. He's ignored it. He got Allen.
I's sorry, you got some other received from Green Bay. You get this guy, you got that guy. My heart is broken. The defense, solid, great young talent, great heart.
They didn't quit. They won the game. They beat the Bills.
They kicked their butt on the line of scrimmage on defense, they kick their butt in the secondary.
But now, what are you doing? Zack Wilson and zero.
He's a thirty second ranked quarterback out of thirty two in the NFL. Everybody knew that going into the season. You're sure enough of it last year in the year before. You're not gonna win the AFC's, You're not going to the playoffs with Zach Wilson.
GM should have had a backup quarterback.
It's that simple, solid backup quarterback by Sam Donald. Whoever you have at any great team, they got somebody to step in.
Zach Wilson was, you know, a bad pick move on.
Sam just Goo moved off from Trey Land, same draft, same draft class.
But you know, I don't know where you go from here. I'm devastated.
Take me the high and the low because, like before kickoff, you've been a sittent ticket holder since Shaye Stadium.
Yeah, yeah, Chase Stadium. I was there from the beginning. Yeah, nineteen sixty six, So.
You've been there nineteen sixty six. That pregame and you've got celebrities and Justin Timberlake is dap In Rocks.
It was my boys turned to me, all three of my sons serving to me and said, I feel like I am in Miami. It was seventy five degrees. The place was lit up, but it was like Super Bowl three years ago, twenty twenty. That kind of electricity, that kind of power, kind of enthusiasm, that kind of belief that yes, we are here, this is our.
Time, right.
It never stopped.
I mean, obviously after that fourth play, we were all stunned and shocked, but I never showed the stitium like that. Never, even in sixty eight when name of one and Chase Citium went to the Super Bowl sixty nine. It was exciting, but this was more elected. There's something about ninety eleven. The whole country is watching, The whole world is watching.
Aaron has come in and to everybody's you know, negative feelings about him, embraced the team, embraced the culture, embraced the city, embraced roadway, embraced the ballet, embraced the restaurant, embraced the young kids, helped Makay back then, helped all his teammates, cut his salary.
He did more than all the right things.
He did all the right things times acts and we're all, you know, embracing him and embracing the Jets culture. And I don't know how you replaced them. They should have had somebody to step in a little bit better than Zach Wilson know what he is, but.
I don't know.
It's it's a cruel joke. I mean, honestly, we had Hank's are on before you, the actor and comedian, and he said, you know, he was embarrassed because he started to believe. And like, if you're a Jets fans in sixty six, you know that this isn't going to go swimmingly. But he said, I'm embarrassed this morning because I resisted. I resisted. I resisted, and as Rogers is coming out of that tunnel, I let the good feelings wash over me and I let it go and I started to believe.
And how silly am I? Why would I ever believe?
You know, I get that, But I don't hold that attitude because I would have left a long time ago. Even after Rogers went down and I, as saws Zach Gilson, a quarterback, I said, we could win this game. We're Jets die haod down deep. We're not quitting on them. They're not quitting on the field. I watched the guys come come back to the locker room at halftime. They
weren't hanging their heads, they weren't in shock. There was a sense that, you know what, in a way, this is going to be a true test of who we are. Let's go out and prove to the world that we're not just one man team.
We're a team.
Maybe Rogers's still that in them. I think his spirits with them. How long that could last? You know, because eventually it comes down to what you do on the field. And the quarterback position. But I don't I don't embrace that. I was still proud, still sharing, still screaming. My voice is harsh, irom all the screaming. You know, whatever time it was midnight with that kick return, beautiful, it was beautiful, great, great, great. I give all the credit to the defensive coordinator, guys,
rock Star, give all the credit to Salah. He embraced the proper emotion and let them. Obviously your leaders are on offensive defense. They were him, Moseley and both Williams, and they can't see enough about those steps. Great talent, great young talent, great heart. So yeah, I'm not I'm not embarrassed at all.
In the moment we were texting, you were in the stadium, You're like, what are they saying on TV? I'm like, I don't have an update. You know, Lisa Salters is not exactly on it in the second and it took a few drives before they said ankle injury. But I said to you over text, I've done this a long time, had an ankle injury. I knew it was Achilles. Just by the way. With that, I said, Achilles in real time, I know this stuff.
We couldn't tell sitting in the stand, I was.
Gonna say in the building, this feeling of hope.
You knew it was bad.
You knew once you saw the cart.
No, yeah, the cart just cemented it.
But even the way he got off, did not take a step, was thinking about taking a step, and then just sat down and you saw his face, you saw his body motions. You knew it was very seriously what acl it could have been an act we couldn't see, you know from the stand.
That's exactly which part of it's like it was. But you knew it was bad. You know it was if that season ending at least six eight weeks.
Not to wallow in your sadness on this, but you've been a fans in sixty six offhand? Is this the biggest disappointment? Is this the biggest letdown? Is this team the one that you got most excited for? Is this injury something I'm thinking about it. I'm going to my head, Like they lost in the AFTC Championship game when they're beating the Broncos that year, and they lost in a couple of games, but like they were never supposed to be those teams. To not see Rogers complete a pass
in the New York Jets uniform. After this whole summer of excitement, I can't imagine anything lower it gets.
It gets to rank in the top five for Shore. I was there when Vinnie went down. I was with Vinnie last night before the game.
By anyway, we're yeah, he looks great.
He's living in Tampa, he's doing some work, he's happy. He was thrilled to be there last night. He embraced the whole Jet culture.
You know, the crazy parallel that people are making. You know that ninety nine season was after the AFC Championship game, and it was the first game and an nny Vinnie rips his achilles, and that's the season they go. And it was eerily similar. And when Vinnie's in the building, it's very.
It was like, this is scripted, right, this is scripted.
This is a reality in the worst way.
The worst possible way. But you got enough. This team was built to win now, right. You can't think about let's let's just tank for Caleb Williams.
Right.
I mean, you know, that's a pipe tree that ain't happening.
So you have to go out and do something today that's very different. You have to have a brilliant GM that has the capacity to think through something that is not your typical move, not your predictable move, but something out of the box. I don't know what it is, obviously people are talking about.
All right, let's let's skip to it. Then let me do okay, because the names that be mentioned on TV are all moderate, like Matt Ryan. You don't want Matt Ryan at the same you know Carton, sure, sure, yeah, you want to come Matt Ryan. Apparently Carson Wentz. No, Colt McCoy is not when he gets any Super Bowls. Here's the big one. You operate in New York circles. You know how these things go and these would you call up Tom Brady this morning and say, hey, do you got one more in you?
And he would absolutely take the phone call.
Would you think you would take the.
Phone competitive animal? He's a competitive animal. He's gonna think through and way and analyze pros and cuts. He's already done it, like whether approach. I'm back in New York, I'm back on top. This is you know, a hero's ending to the greatest career ever. They have the talent. They may have to pick up an offensive linement, but they certainly have the talent, hackets and goods of suh or the DC. I forgot his name was John hoebrig. I mean they want to Jackson wanted Firemans first year.
It's ridiculous. The guy is just, you know, one of the best that doesn't get the credit.
Uh.
He's weighing that. It's not about buddy. He loves New York. He hates the Jets one than anything in the world. When I saw him last.
No, no, you said, you think you think.
Brady, Well, the last time I saw him with a couple of guys and one of them, you know, David's a big Jeff fan, and he it up. He was so excited to jump all over there. It's too bad. Remember this game. Remember that game. Remember Brandy Moss and the last player in the first stelf. I mean it's photographic memory every time he beat us, right, and it's
a lot of them, a lot of highlight. So in a way to turn that hatred is it's very very uh literary and and you know, inspiring in a certain way, you know, in terms of taking a view on life that you know, maybe I do something out of the box, unpredictable. The part I don't know is physically you know, where's his and for forty one forty two he's probably in
the best self of anybody in the world. But I see football ready and my guess is he's not at all Ash've been And you know he's got a good gig down in Vegas by the way, by somebody tickets. I got off for a quarter million dollars my six seats before the game. I probably could sell out for fifty bucks today the big financial turn in for a place, right, But I think I would make the call, he answers, Yes, I think ninety ten. He doesn't do it, but he'll consider it. He's a very smart, thoughtful guy.
You know.
It's funny. He was at the Patriots game obviously, so from people who were there in New England, they were like, a he's got the glimmer in his eyes still, like he's still You could see he loved being in that arena. He's a solid fifteen to twenty pounds lighter than he was oh yeah last year.
Yeah yeah, he looks that.
He looks very And then the other side of this is he currently owns a piece of the Raiders, so that would have to be a lot of legality stuff with the league. But I'm sure the league, if Brady wanted to come back, they figure that out and we could expedite that.
I mean, Mark Davis would figure that out.
But who else is Yeah, I'm thinking out for back. I don't go back to tradition. I say give me going back that has leg that's young, that I could throw in there. I won't make mistakes, but could make plays with his legs, that has the capacity with the braid to not just that break frim So Will.
Is all right, So the you don't Malik's so young. That's like having Zach Wilson out there. They're not proven. You'd want like a Tyrod Taylor. Who the Giants have in that sense, you'd want he? Does you know Huntly? Maybe Huntley on the Ravens, the backup to Lamar He Like, are these guys that much better than Zach Wilson At this point? I don't know Andy Dalton. Do you want Dalton? He's down in Carolina mentoring Bryce Young.
Okay, let me let me make a real simple anybody's better than anybody can put it there because he was the game for you.
He cannot the greatest catch of the season. It was Garrett Wilson, right, Why was.
That a terrible pass?
The worst pass that was thrown to the wrong shoulder, That was a that was a pick hard.
So everything you needed to see. He threw interceptions into triple covers. He threw it into the dirt. He's running back, which he's got got that high school mentality. I'm going to run around and run around and then I'm going to make a mistake trying to make something great happen.
That hasn't changed.
He is who is he is not nf already processing ability to see the field, make quick decisions, and then actor.
He's just you cannot go more than one or two games for him. That's it.
One last one for you and not a player. It's a because I just I don't know whether this is gonna where reaction is going to be what you want to say publicly, but I think if you represent Jets fans, you have a certain cringe factor to this. So Rogers is down, snaps his achilles. They're going sideline, sideline, and then they show the owner's box and wood. He has a giant diamond encrusted sauce gardener necklace still on while he's like taking calls about Rogers. You can't make it up, David.
No, no, I mean I've talked to about you know, his view on on on the team.
I mean he's all in killing the scene and getting the attention, getting the buzz, and himself being legitimized by Aaron Rodgers.
That's what that was about. I mean, I could go back to whether trade was made.
They didn't have to swap the picks in the first round, the fifteenth for the sixteen, none of that. But Zach wilson game plan doesn't fly that the year will be out of the appalloon by the end of the first step in Dallas.
I'm gonna go to the Dallas game. I'm gonna super Cherry Joe.
You go, You're going to dallass I am.
I'm ruining this team on It's.
A shot, no snap, it's a shot.
Big.
You're gonna sit with Jerry and say what go Jacks.
For the chats. It doesn't matter. I sait with Steve Ross in Miami and news for the chats. It's okay.
So you know he respects it, he respects me. He's loyal, He's a loyal Maybe no, it's un loyal to the Jets. I will tell you by the end of the first half, you'll see what exact that's.
I mean, if you could.
Train him to manage a game, to really manage a game with his brain and just make a couple of quick passes, but he is not capable of the Yeah, stack ten guys in the box and stop. You saw what a super talent he is. I mean, you love cook super.
Talent all in big part you Garrett. Garrett is maybe the premiree wide receive, the number one. He's a true number one.
He's a blizard made a couple of big players. They have all the skills.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not complaining about the wide receivers.
Done about you know, Dwayne Brown hasn't had a staff in preseason and practice something and the biggest side of the history of Jets about an issue the Jets. That's your left tackle, that's your blind site, the left tackle blind side position in one of the top five positions in the NFL. You're going a thirty eight to thirty nine year old guy come roughly labroom surgery that hasn't had a staff. So the other thing you do is go down try to do a you know, a tick block,
you know, and that's what happened. We went down, the guy went over him Camplain. Actually in a way they should have ran the first three, four, five place, you know, just get to go there to go.
But I'm not going to play pack it, you.
Know, last one, last one, because you and I are gonna.
Last from this deva ends.
This is for the rest of our last one, last last one. Do you regret doing Rogers over Car now that we look back on it all these months later.
Absolutely no, absolutely no. No.
Rogers did something matchical for this team, and it's got to go. It's gonna last for a while. How we take advantage of that, that's what's going to set us apart.
Okay, thank you, be the best, David, appreciate you.
So there you go.
Eron two different diehard Jet fans giving two very similar perspective. David the latter one didn't seem as woe as me and was more angry about the offensive line play and what the general manager has done to prepare this team at quarterback, and Hank just sound like, you know, that's just doom and gloom. What got me is when Hank's area says that he carries over that Nicks Jets Mets fandom of always being the sad sack loser to like his Hollywood career, where the second you pitch a project
and there's pushback, you just immediately shut things down. It does become an ethos after a while. And I said it on Good Morning Football. At some point, Jets fans look in the mirror and just say, why can't I have nice things? Why me? That?
Like rung really true when you were saying, you know, you had multiple friends who texted you we just can't have nice things, which is the kind of mandra you have after years and years of feeling beaten down by something and then getting excited about it and then just the bottom falling out entirely. So that hurt to hear that, and it hurt to hear that you were getting that from multiple people.
Yeah, all right, so it's Tuesday morning. We're gonna get this up as quick as possible. So it's an instant reaction. But I threw out there to David about Brady. I don't know if that's realistic, but like, if you're looking for inside stuff, of course I was texting with all the Jets coaches. Of course, I was texting with executives in the front office. My thing to you is this morning, in the immediate reaction, devastation. They won the game. They
love it. Devastation. I spoke to a coach who said, he hasn't slept and it's already ten am and they got home at midnight one am. Hasn't slept, can't sleep. Why excitement nerves, just gutted. Why gutted four Rogers, gutted four Rogers. How much Aaron has poured into this team this summer, and how much he gave the money back and he's all in and he gosh, it's everything. I feel so bad for so many people, the fans, the organization that threw their weight behind Rogers, for Aaron and
his team, and for the NFL. It sucks. The Jets being a good team and the Jets being interesting was really fun, and maybe they are, but this does feel like a day of morning. Do I think they go and sign Matt Ryan.
No?
Do I think they signed Carson Wentz.
No.
I think Zach Wilson's the guy right now, and we can cross those bridges if it is clear and obvious that he isn't do they maybe have to sign someone else called Tim Boyles on the practice squad, probably elevate Tim Boyle. Other immediate things is that they have a game in six days, like they got to go play the Cowboys who just want forty to nothing and have the best defense in the league. So they have to start preparing. The NFL's cruel like that. You're going to
turn the page. Originally, when we were planning this during the week yesterday, I had a different guest schedule. I had about ten points from week one on one to go through. They're all second there, They're all way in the back burner. Today was a Jets episode. If we were on WFN, spend ten hours doing it. Fortunately we were recording the podcast here. But I do want to give a story or two for my weekend? Is that okay?
Erin?
Oh yeah, no, I let's hear something. I don't know what the story is, but hopefully something uplifting and a little brighter than what the past.
I'm gonna pat you some pictures. I'm gonna paint you some pictures. So I work for Fox Sports on the weekend. I'm blessed to do. It's it's one of the coolest gigs a guy can have in our world because I fly in and I'm with sports media and ex player
luminaries for about two hours every Sunday. Then I fly back, but on week one, I fly in on a Friday every year because the Fox executives, led by Eric Shanks and Bill Richards and Jacob Ollman and Brad Zeiger, these guys put together a beautiful Friday night dinner for anyone who works on the Sunday pregame shows. And we have two of them. We got the Fox NFL Kickoff show that starts at eleven AM. I'm Eastern, and it features myself, Carissa Thompson, Charles Woodson, Michael Vick, and now our new
edition Julian Edelman. And then Rob Gronkowski comes in and he's gonna be doing a bunch of appearances with us too. Now on the other show, it's almost like chair for chair. You got kurm Nafie, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long, and Jay Glazer, who kind of does the insider stuff on that show. So I got all those people, got all the producers, you got all the executives, and they
rent out some awesome LA restaurant. Last year we went to Spago, which is like the original La Cool restaurant, and I got to meet Wolfgang Paul, who came out of the kitchen probably to want to go meet Michael Strahan, but I just ran right in front and I just like intercepted him and to talk to him. So this is all very glamorous, free steak, free dinners treated like gold. Probably a car that picks me up, whether it be an uber or a car service, to drive me ten
minutes to wherever we got to go. Like Fox treats talent really well. Fox cannot control the airline industry. So I finished my show Good Morning Football, and we had a great one. After the Lions upset the Chiefs at ten am, I immediately run to a car that's going to drive me to the airport where I had a noon flight on a certain airline that was going to fly and get me to LA at three pm Pacific time. Dinner's not till six. I'd have time to go check
into a hotel. Typically I would, I would maybe you know, freshen up, maybe get a workout in probably not maybe instead of getting that workout, ordering room service and eating a meal before the meal. That's my typical routine. Well, I get to the airport and I go to that. Let's just say I don't want to give any tips away and complain about an airline a gathering space for those who travel often on the airline, and it is a pig sty. Everyone's fighting over like one cheese play
in like a potential cup of humus. It's vile. I literally do the Simpsons meme that I referenced with Hank, where like I walk in, put my hat on the rack, get my hat, walk right out. It was disgusting. So I sit at the gate. I haven't eaten. I've been up since four in the morning for Good Morning Football, and I'm like, I'll eat on the flight. We'll be okay. Flight's delayed one hour. I'm like, all right, no big deal. I've dealt with this before. Flight's delayed two hours. All right, okay,
just hang in there. I'm texting. I'm getting my notes ready for Sunday's pregame show. Finally they bored us. I feel great, Feel great, Get seated. I got a nice little window seat. There's another seat next to me. It's open till the very last second, I'm like, okay, we're good. All of a sudden, they're like, all right, we're wrapping up. More like I have two seats to myself. A guy comes walking on.
I know the guy.
This is my senior big brother from my fraternity in college. Comes walking down the aisle and sits right next to me. It just so happens that this guy is a gentleman named Michael Dubin. Do you know that name? Do either and of you guys know this name Michael Dubin? No, Michael Dubin was my favorite senior. When I was a freshman in college. I was in a fraternity. He was one of the seniors. Some of the seniors were huge assholes.
Michael Dubin was amazing. Would take care of us. So be the guy that would say, hey, this isn't a great moment in your life.
I know that.
Why don't you come to my room and have a soda and relax and chill out while the rest of your friends are not enjoying being up at three in the morning doing positive things. I'm sure, I mean, it's all we're doing philanthropy. That's what we did in the fraternity as a freshman. Yes, it's all about philanthropy, and we were probably putting together some sort of wonderful community
service event or planting a tree for somebody. Duban walks on and now Dubin since we were in college, and you can google him and everything, and it's not like I've seen any of this. This you know from him in a personal level because we haven't talked much in the last twenty years. He was struggling in his twenties and like marketing and like trying to be an actor.
At one point, and he'll tell it, Candon Lee was working in advertising, was having some success and came across an idea and had this concept in about two thousand and seven where he launched a YouTube video for a company called Dollar Shave Club. If you haven't heard a Dollar Shave Club, it was razors that were sent directly to your home. It was you skip the middleman, you go right to the consumer. And he was selling razors for one dollar and it was as legitimate as it sounds.
But the story goes he inherited some incredible warehouse of razors and was a creative mastermind because he's a genius, put together a hilarious YouTube video which I don't know if you remember Hit the Tennis Racket, Walker through the Warehouse, Go google Dollar Shave Club YouTube video. Essentially, Michael Duban creates Dollar Shave Club. It's one of the most successful first entrepreneurial, grassroots disrupt the mainstream companies in business. That
was in like two thousand and seven. In twenty seventeen, after they've already expanded from just razors to doing shampoo and doing conditioner into colognes I don't think he'd be upset with me saying this. Dubin sells the company to Unilever for a billion dollars, all right, so he's now a multi millionaire whatever, and then he goes on he's on boards of companies whatever. So imagine me. I'm sitting here and Duban walks out of all the people that
you could sit with, he sits down. We immediately embrace. We're having a hilarious conversation. He's the fun one of the funniest guys ever. If you watch the YouTube stuff that he does, it's authentic. It's him. He's amazing. But sure enough, it's not like we're talking while the flight's going off. We're sitting on the runway, to late another hour, to late another hour. Now it's two hours. We've caught up. We're good. We're both doing our own thing on our
phones like whatever. Pilot gets on now. Remember the flight was supposed to take off at twelve. It's four o'clock Eastern. Four hour delay. Gets on. Pilot says, folks, good news and bad news. The weather that was seemingly affecting this flight has passed and we're about eleventh in order to get out of here. But due to FAA regulations at nine hours, our entire crew has to clock out. We're at eight hours in forty eight minutes. You can't make
this stuff up. So Dubin looks at me because he's hilarious and is like, I'm sure he's really gunning it to get us off the runway. The alternatives. He's a Friday off in New York and we're not sure enough. Fock fifty D plane a new Cruisy to come on. Don't worry though, this usually takes pretty easy. We get off. I'm dejected. I'm missing this dinner. I know that, but I know I also have to be in La first thing in the morning because we have a big production meeting.
Edelman's new we're doing a walk through, and like, I can't miss that. We get off. I see my Delta app it says boarding in about twenty minutes your flight. I look at Dubin. He says to me, well, they'd have to get all of the bags from that place, put them on a different plane. There's no way they're doing that in the next twenty minutes. There's no way. And I look around JFK Airport. It's mass hysteria, as
it always is. But it's Friday week after labored and sure enough, the next update on our app, your flight is taking off at ten pm Eastern. Oh my god. So now it's like, what do you do? So now we're attached to me and him, We're like, are we have an adventure? He's a diehard tennis fan, says to me, should we just go to Medvedev or what's his name?
So?
What's the alcarez? This is Friday night. I'm like, I can't. I got a family, I've got bags, I've got like. He's like, I've got bags, I've got I'm in the Like I gotta get back to LA. He's like, this flight's not taken off till ten Why don't we go? And this is why, Like you have like certain people who are doers and alphas, and then there's me who like waits for things to happen. This is an unbelievable story of like entrepreneurial spirit. He's like, why don't we
just go? He doesn't have tickets. Why don't we go to this tennis match? Hang out there for a few hours. It's quicker than going all the way back to Brooklyn or Manhattan. We'll watch some tennis and we'll go back. I'm like, hey, you gonna get tickets. He's like, go on, stup publy. Look it's a few hundred bucks. He's like, I'll buy both our tickets. The two of us will go. Like we what do we do with our bags? He's like, we'll leave our bags. We'll figure it out. There's something
we could do. Like we'll be fine. I'm like, you really into this? He goes, I'm really doing this. So I call an uber and I'm like, I'm going home. I have a chance to see my family. I'll come back to the airport. I'm not sitting in the airport for six hours. Aaron, this really happened have you seen the Paris Hotel on the side of the road on the Bqui ever on the way to Laguardier or airport. I think it's called the Paris Hotel. It's like a stucco building and it's every all the romance and beauty
of Paris. Imagine the opposite of that. It's off the Bqui and like, I'm not talking a story of queens like we're talking to like, get right off the Bqui And it's got a giant Eiffel tower that lights up fluorescent colors. It almost looks like sleazy in a way, like one of those like movies you'd see where you know on Savory thing's happen.
Yeah.
Michael Dubin looks at me and says, all right, am I buying your ticket? I'm like, no, I'm going home. I've got I'm gonna have a meal and come back to the airport. He goes, I'm going to the US Open. I am telling you I watched this man buy a ticket on his phone with no hookup. No, he's not asking for anything. Get dropped off on the side of the road at the BQI. Walk by the Paris Hotel.
I got dropped off at the Paris Hotel, walk to Flushing Meadows, which was probably a mile in the pouring rain, and I get back in the car within twenty minutes. I get a selfie from him and he's smiling in front of the match, in front of Medvedev and al Choriz. He watches the entire match, and midway through the second set, I'm still on the BQI because it's an hour and a half. It's you know, Friday traffic. I'm miserable. I'm missing this dinner. I'm bombed. I get it updated from
my airline. Flight's been canceled, so we go home. I get on the first flight out. Sure enough, he goes to the match. It's an incredible match. He's sending me photos. Obviously Durant's there and show these, Darron's there, and Tom Brady's there, and there he is in the mix, and I'm like, this is unbelievable. Saturday morning, I got on the first flight out, I get out to LA and it's just go, go, go. Hanging out with Gronk, hanging out with Edelman, Charles Woodson's amazing, Chris was great. We
have an amazing Saturday morning meeting. I do my usual week one routine, five pm, table for one, dinner for one, just me eat, want to stay on East Coast time, get in bed around six or seven. I sleep like a baby. Have an awesome Sunday show. I'm not sure if you watch Fox NFL kickoff, we kicked ass. We had a great show. Edelman was fantastic. And I've got like a ten thirty flight, ten thirty Pacific. Get to the airport, brother, you wouldn't believe it. Get to the airport,
going through security, get the alert. Flight is delayed till six pm Pacific, nine pm Eastern. Went back to Fox, Go back sitting in the green room watching games. Let's just say I did eventually get home. But if the travel woes of week one, or any example of what's to come, it could be a long season for your boy. P shrikes Aaron your thoughts on that entire story.
So I have had a lot of horrible travel experiences. I've had bags getting lost on international flights and showing up in Australia with no luggage. I've had flights where we land and we have a layover and the connection does we miss the connection to them, We're stuck in a city overnight where we're like, it's not our city,
it's not people we know kind of thing. And when I hear you talk about travel kind of makes me feel like I'm a little luckier than I think every single time, maybe just because you travel so much.
But I have to give this side of Now, there are ninety nine percent of people who say, you have the best job in the world and you're flying on someone else's time. Shut up. I don't tweet about it. I don't out the airlines. If we're doing the season, I'm telling the season, the stories, this is what happens.
Did you consider?
So there have been a few times I've been to JFK or Lagordia where it keeps getting later and later.
Yeah, I'm just forget it.
I want to fly out tomorrow morning. I want to go home and sleep in my bed. I don't want to sit in the airport for four hours. It turns into five, it turns into six. Like did you when it I guess when you got off the plane.
Yeah, it was done. Now it's done, it's done. Yeah, it's over. And I hear the Friday night dinner was great. Here Edelman and Straighthand and Gronk and all these guys. Yeah, it's great, real quick on that. So I'm in the airport all day Sunday and then I go back to Fox and I'm back at the air The YouTube Sunday ticket freaking awesome. It was great, it worked. I bought it and it was great. So the the saving grace is that, like there was football to watch, I was
able to do my work. I got home on Sunday around like two am, three am. I was on Good Morning Football by seven am. I still haven't slept as we do because I had to stay up and watch Rogers. So I'm running on fumes. I know, I just did twenty minutes on travel, but you know, I listened to Ryan Roussillo and he'll do a podcast and have a great guest for forty minutes. Sometimes I skip to life advice at the end. I listened to Simmons and cousin sal They have got great talk about the line. Sometimes
I skip right to parent corner. Like, guys, if you're not into the travel woes or my travel stories, I get it. But there are some people who love this stuff.
Yeah.
Figure as for Michael Dubin, go Google him, and if you ever want to support Dollar Shave Club, he doesn't open it anymore. So go do it or don't do it. I don't care. But one of the great stories. Google him on YouTube, enjoy the comedic. Should we get him on next week, I think he'll have some good stories.
I mean, we can't have our favorite topics, travel, tennis. Does he like Broadway?
Yeah?
Okay, great, Yeah that's all and football too, I guess.
But there's a whole sect of people that I'm friendly with that are like, you know, Dube I haven't seen in twenty years, but we know each other well, but like a Gary V type where it's like entrepreneur. Then we've got chefs that I've become friends with, restaurant tours.
I feel like we could open it up this season, and so one day we'll have like here's John Coon, who used to play fullback for the Packers, talking about interior offensive line play, and then the next week it's like, here's a Sioux chef for Gordon Ramsey, who's going to tell you what it's really like on the Bear. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.
We need someone who will talk about the Bears, and.
Then someone who will talk about the bear.
Yeah, we can figure this out.
On that note, we're done. Amazing podcast, Jets fans. I'm sorry it's not going to be what it was, but you know what, this is life. There could be worse things going on. I'm Peter Scherger. That's Aaron wan Kaufman. Jason English is in the cap. See, you guys are awesome. We text all the time now. We've become great friends and I love sharing the season as it goes.
In LA.
You've got Matt Schneider and Jason Kleinman and all those Arizona guys who who are sad to see them lose to Mississippi State in overtime. Jed Fish couldn't get it done. We've got Meredith Batten and Dave Juranka and the NFL network side, and of course the iHeartRadio people. We're having a blast with this hopefully better tone to start this podcast next week. But you know what, that's the season. It's not all gonna be roses and rainbows.
Baby.
On that note, we'll see you next week. The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever where you get your podcasts.