Nick Wright labels Aaron Rodgers as "most disingenuous athlete" of his lifetime over QB's comments on Jets' IR decision
Is Aaron Rodgers continuing to become one of the NFL's biggest villains?
The multiple-time MVP had already been one of the most polarizing figures in the league for his preference for alternative medicines, but it reached controversial levels when he contracted COVID-19 in 2021 and was revealed to be unvaccinated.
And then there was his overbearing influence on the New York Jets, who had been expected to contend for a Super Bowl when he joined, only for him to tear his Achilles in his team debut, leading to a collapse and another year without even a playoff appearance.
Those controversies resurfaced on Tuesday when Rodgers claimed that he did not want to be reactivated from IR. That earned him a massive rebuke from Fox Sports' Nick Wright, who said on "First Things First":
"The commentary is not about your vaccination status, it’s about you being the most disingenuous athlete of my lifetime. You were disingenuous about the vaccine, your retirement status, coming out of the dark room, 'I’m going to play for the Packers.’
"You were then disingenuous about whether or not you wanted Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard and Tim Boyle on your team. You were disingenuous about why Nate Hackett is the offensive coordinator. You’re now disingenuous about your own comeback."
Skip Bayless also joins in on criticizing Aaron Rodgers for recent comments
Wright was not the only one to join the Aaron Rodgers criticism train on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, his colleague Skip Bayless called the Super Bowl-winning quarterback "the all-time master manipulator" on Undisputed for making himself one of the 2023 season's biggest topics despite not playing a single snap after Week 1:
"[Aaron Rodgers] just pulled off becoming yearlong the most talked about, written about, debated about New York Jet, and he played four snaps this year. And he managed to keep himself in the center of attention week after week after week by dangling this little caveat of ‘I’m going to shatter the mold.'"
By "shatter the mold", he may have been referring to the "speed-bridge" surgical procedure that Rodgers underwent in the hopes of returning in time for a hypothetical playoff run, which obviously never happened.