SNY
Despite only being with the team for about a week, wide receiver Davante Adams felt empowered enough to address the entirety of the New York Jets locker room following their Sunday Night Football loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
According to his pal Aaron Rodgers — who, of course, engineered Adams’ arrival in New York, just as he did with Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard, Tim Boyle, and Nathaniel Hackett — Davante Adams’ speech was *the* “realest” speech he’s ever heard in his 20 years in the league.
Isn’t that amazing — how Aaron and his buddies always seem to know and do best (according to the QB himself)? The arrival of Adams must be having a fascinating effect on the Jets’ locker room, as he’s immediately been installed as Aaron Rodgers’ lieutenant and feels comfortable enough to address the team despite only being with them for a week.
Davante Adams spoke to the team after the game the other day.
Aaron Rodgers just said that “I thought it was the realest speech I’d heard in a locker room in 20 years.”
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) October 23, 2024
We’re reaching a stage in the Jets’ season where it’s only a matter of time until Dianna Russini of The Athletic comes out with an expose about the mass dysfunction within the organization and the players’ perception of Rodgers. The dam seems to be breaking in the media, at least, as ESPN analysts Dominique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday recently ripped Rodgers for using The Pat McAfee Show to send messages to his teammates.
The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt, who reported on Rodgers’ response to Adams’ speech to the team, has a similar train of thought as he wondered how such a speech from a player who just showed up would land within the Jets’ locker room.
“I think the message is accurate but I question whether the messenger should be a guy that just showed up,” Rosenblatt reported on Thursday, following both Rodgers and Adams’ comments.
“I’m not in the locker room, maybe it did resonate the way he said it did, but you wonder how guys who have been fighting to build the culture up here over the last five years, especially on defense, how do you feel about a guy who just showed up coming in and saying that this culture is terrible and I’m here to fix it.”
The issue with Rodgers’ routine condescension of his teammates is that he’s not only yet to deliver on the promise of his Hall of Fame potential but is also largely responsible for the allegedly toxic culture that Adams ripped in his speech. It also begs the question of why Rodgers didn’t deliver such a speech himself.