Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist

It is official, it is physically impossible for the universe not to use the New York Jets as a comedic punching bag for our entertainment. Before I say anything else, let me take you back to April 24th to what was potentially the second greatest day for Jets fans in the history of their franchise. They had just made a trade for 4-time MVP Aaron Rodgers.

The Jets were forced to give up a king’s ransom for Rodgers but in the eyes of NFL fans around the world it was worth it. After finishing 7-10 last year with the Jets, New York fans were optimistic about the future with both the offensive and defensive rookies of the year in Garret Wilson and Sauce Gardner.

However, the major elephant in the room was third year quarterback Zach Wilson. Wilson was drafted 2nd overall in 2021 by the Jets with the hope that he could one day become the savior that the Jets needed. Unfortunately, like every other Jets quarterback before, Wilson struggled significantly in his first two seasons. This had New York Fans doubting whether or not Wilson truly had the ability to lead the rest of their championship caliber roster around him. As such, they called for a new starting QB, a battle-tested veteran who had proved his value to a team countless times over and over again. Luckily, they would find their answer and so much more in Aaron Rodgers.

After years and years of terrible QBs from the likes of Geno Smith to Mark Sanchez, “Gang Green” finally had a quarterback who could lead them to the promised land. Rodgers was shaping up to be everything the Jets wanted to be, serving as an incredible leader and bringing some much needed experience to a still very young Jets team. This would all culminate into Rodgers Jets debut at Metlife stadium against their division rival the Buffalo Bills.

The stars had aligned, the universe smiled upon New York, and the stage was set as Aaron Rodgers charged out onto Metlife waving the American flag in hand. Every Jets fan in the stadium thought: “This is it, we will finally get to see what a real quarterback looks like!!”.

Everything was perfect…until it was not. On only the fourth snap of the game, Rodgers was sacked by defensive end Leonard Floyd and landed very awkwardly on his left leg. Rodgers grabbed his ankle in pain as every Jets fan watched in complete horror and shock as their fancy new quarterback was carted off the field. Rodgers X-rays came back negative and he was ruled out for the remainder of the game. The injury had sucked the energy out of the entire building. Every single Jets fan laid their heads down in sorrow and remorse, but it was not over for them yet.

The loss may have hindered the team, but New York came onto the field and showed the world that they didn’t need a QB to win. The defense played the best game of its life holding Buffalo to 16 points and limiting a normally dynamic Josh Allen to only 1 touchdown while picking him off 3 times. Breece Hall ran all over Buffalo’s defense and the jets eventually won on a 65 yard punt return by rookie Xavier Gipson in overtime.

This was no doubt an impressive win for New York, but it came at an immense cost. After an MRI on Tuesday it was confirmed that Rodgers in fact snapped his left achilles in half and would miss the remainder of the season. You could hear the sorrow and woe all across New York as Jets fans cried out to the universe, begging and pleading for it to tell them how they were not allowed to even experience a single bit of happiness in their horrific lives as Jets fans.

This whole ordeal has been absolutely terrible for fans around the league. However, this untimely injury may be more costly to the NFL itself than any fanbase. The NFL had put millions and millions of dollars into marketing Rodgers entrance onto the Jets team. New York is one of the biggest markets for them and having the Jets finally be good would be extremely beneficial for the league. However, with this injury, the millions of dollars the NFL spent on hyping up the Jets this season goes away as their betting odds slide from being the favorites to win the division to last place.

That being said, the Jets are still not a team to be taken lightly. They have an incredible team and a horrendous QB will not stop them from winning at least 6 games…especially if a few new faces might appear. Having already gotten out of the way that the Jets have a championship level roster outside of quarterback, the fan base is demanding that the front office make another trade for a different veteran QB. Many names have been thrown out there such as Jameis Winston or Matthew Stafford.

However, the most surprising name in this discussion that has been appearing more and more is, you guessed it, TOM BRADY. Yes I know we are going through this whole thing again. With Jets fans being in the panicked state they are in right now, many have called for Tom Brady to make a return to the division. Everyone knows Brady can’t resist an easy opportunity to win another Super Bowl ring, but even by his standards this is far fetched.

The three-time MVP has stated on multiple occasions that he is officially retired from the NFL and he has no plans to return. Even with those opportunities, I am fairly certain he would prefer to keep his brain from being turned into mush as opposed to another Super Bowl ring. However, even without Brady the Jets hopes are far from dashed. If they can acquire one of the before mentioned names or even someone else, they still might have a shot at division title especially seeing as they just exposed the Bills (again) on national television.

With as good of a team they have around the quarterback position, it is very easy for me to imagine that if they even acquired a semi-decent quarterback that they could make a deep run in the playoffs. Still, only one thing is for certain and it is that this travesty has permanently altered the seasons of every team in the NFL this year…for better or worse. Will the Jets and Rodgers be able to recover and make a run for the championship in the next few seasons? Or will this event simply join the rest of the Jets failures and live in infamy as one of the unluckiest things to happen to a team ever.

Either way only one thing is for certain. If the universe wanted to inspire a fan base with the most hope it ever had just to tear it all down right in front of their eyes, it always had to be, the New York Jets…