When Aaron Rodgers laid his head on the pillow on that April 25 night in a suburban New Jersey hotel room, memories took him back to Berkeley, California, in the summer of 2003.
It was his first year at Cal, his initial time away from home. He resided in a dingy fraternity house, filled with excitement for his venture into the unknown. Now, those same emotions overwhelmed him as he was traded to the New York Jets.
Upon arriving in New Jersey aboard a private jet precisely at 8:52 p.m., he embarked on a 30-mile journey from Teterboro Airport to his hotel. Once he reached the hotel, he unpacked his belongings and surrendered himself to his emotions. A profound sense of contentment enveloped him, prompting a deep, tranquil exhale—an exhale that one experiences when everything in the world aligns harmoniously, as he eloquently expressed.
But, for now, in his hotel room, he found himself contemplating a line from his favorite TV show, “The Office.” Andy Bernard, portrayed by Ed Helms, says,
Oh, what a journey it had been.
The biggest NFL trade of the offseason went from a mere rumor to reality over the course of three long months, as negotiations between the two teams seemed like they would never end.
The drama unfolded like a gripping tale, including a surprising split with the Packers, triggered by the quarterback’s frustrations with the front office and the team’s intention to replace him with 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love. There was a meeting in Malibu, California, which attracted paparazzi attention, a bombshell announcement on “The Pat McAfee Show,” rollercoaster-like negotiations, a mysterious two-week dead period, and finally, a deal.
Gutekunst, who stopped to chat, looked back over his shoulder as Jets’ general manager Joe Douglas appeared a minute later.
Nearly three weeks had passed when the Jets’ delegation, comprising Douglas, owner Woody Johnson, vice chairman Christopher Johnson, coach Robert Saleh, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and team president Hymie Elhai, convened for a five-hour sojourn at Rodgers’ exquisite oceanfront abode in Malibu. The purpose of this rendezvous was to contemplate their prospective future alliance.
And it was almost two weeks after Rodgers publicly expressed on the March 15 edition of McAfee’s show that he and the Packers were parting ways, and he desired to be traded to the Jets immediately.
The Malibu meeting, which occurred on March 7, was a casual conversation rather than a formal corporate presentation. Afterward, team officials felt optimistic about the outcome. The presence of the Jets’ contingent on the street attracted paparazzi and onlookers, and crowd control was required. When asked by a camera crew if the Jets would get Rodgers, Woody Johnson responded, “We’ll find out.”
Though Rodgers may not have communicated his decision immediately, the Packers were already operating as if he had. The team officials engaged in a conversation with Rodgers the next day, paving the way for the cross-country trip to Malibu.
A deal seemed inevitable. Even Rodgers himself believed so.
The Jets were cautiously optimistic, primarily because they understood that the Packers were eager to trade Rodgers—Gutekunst felt he couldn’t keep Love, the quarterback he had drafted at No. 26 overall in 2020, on the bench behind Rodgers for a fourth year—and the Jets stood as the sole interested team.
On March 12, Douglas received a nocturnal call from Dunn, imparting the tidings the franchise had eagerly anticipated: Rodgers expressed his desire to grace the Jets with his presence. Only a chosen few were privy to this confidential knowledge, while the rest of the world became aware of it three days hence during the McAfee show.
At 1 p.m. on March 15, work halted inside the Jets’ facility. People gathered around laptops in clusters. The building briefly lost electricity at the start of McAfee’s show—possibly due to heavy winds in the area—but power returned well before Rodgers declared his “intention” to play for the Jets.
That was the moment it became real, hearing it directly from the man himself.
“That’s when we knew,” Woody Johnson said.
