Pat Leonard: Aaron Rodgers’ Jets arrival felt big because it was, now he has to handle New York

NEW YORK — Aaron Rodgers received two standing ovations from Jets employees on Wednesday:

Once when he stepped onstage as a soundtracked video montage welcomed the longtime Packers great to Florham Park. A second time when Jets owner Woody Johnson said he was “delighted” to have the “future Hall of Famer,” then asked for a second one.

“I’d just like to have a round of applause right there,” Johnson said.

The red carpet was rolled out. Rodgers received his flowers. Wednesday felt big, and that’s because it was.

“When he walks in the building,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said of Rodgers, “everything changes.”

Head coach Robert Saleh said seeing the four-time MVP hold up his No. 8 Jets jersey was different.

“If you would have told me two years ago Aaron Rodgers would be your quarterback, I would have laughed in your face,” Saleh said. “We’re relevant in the NFL now, but what we do with that is on us.”

The “first day of school feeling” that Rodgers described while sporting a new short haircut and a refreshed smile was very real. It made it feel even bigger that Rodgers, 39, was fully embracing the immediate expectations of him with his new team.

“I’m an old guy, so I want to be a part of a team that can win it all,” he said. “And I believe this is a place where we can get that done. … I noticed walking in this morning that [the] Super Bowl III trophy is looking a little lonely. So …”

“Every year there’s a handful of teams who can win it and we know it,” Rodgers added later. “Most people don’t say that out loud. They say in training camps the goal is the same for all 32 teams, but in actuality there’s anywhere from 8 to 12 teams who could actually do it. And I believe we’re one of those teams.”

Rodgers isn’t wrong. The Jets seem to have the kind of roster that can win the AFC East and go on a deep playoff run, if not challenge for and win the Super Bowl.

The question isn’t really whether Rodgers will help the Jets win more games this season, though. It’s how he will react under the New York and national microscope when adversity hits, when people are choosing whether to clap for him or boo him rather than being told which.

Tom Brady won a Super Bowl in Tampa after leaving the Patriots, and Matthew Stafford won a championship with the Rams after departing Detroit. But both veteran quarterbacks escaped out of the spotlight of harsher markets to less scrutinized franchises to launch those title runs.

Rodgers, conversely, has left the small town behind for the big city.

A sliver of Rodgers’ Green Bay drama snuck into Wednesday’s press conference when he was asked to explain the discrepancy between his and Packers GM Brian Gutekunst’s stories about how it ended, too: Rodgers has said he would have liked more direct communication, while Gutekunst has said he tried to reach Rodgers “many times” but never got a response.

“People that know me, I’m fortunate to live in a beautiful house,” Rodgers said. “The only downside is I have very limited cell service. So if you want to get ahold of me, I have to see your face, you got to FaceTime me. So the only response to the communication thing is there’s records in your phone about who called you, when, FaceTime, and there wasn’t any specific FaceTimes from any of those numbers that I was looking at. That’s neither here nor there, because now we’re at this position.”

Unusual, right?

Not a big deal here in New York because it’s just tying a bow on the end of his time with the Packers. But a reminder of the murky, confusing, winding road some of Rodgers’ recent conflicts have gone down as he arrives at a Jets franchise that doesn’t have a reputation for stability.

Rodgers’ discourse also is highly politicized. He has shown a repeated desire to be outspoken on his anti-vaccination stance, something he initially lied about while with the Packers.

He recently appeared to endorse fellow anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Democratic presidential bid, liking a Kennedy tweet that said Fox had fired host Tucker Carlson after “acknowledging that the TV networks pushed a deadly and ineffective vaccine to please their Pharma advertisers,” which “demonstrated the terrifying power of Big Pharma.”

On a less serious note, Rodgers is also so famous that even the smallest thing can create a stir.

When Saleh revealed Wednesday that Rodgers was “walking around barefoot” in a meeting — “he’s awesome,” the coach added with a smile — the nugget caught fire on social media because it’s Rodgers.

He’s the guy who did the “darkness retreat” to figure out what to do this season, who has openly experimented in recent years with the ayahuasca psychedelic, who sometimes fans the flames of his doubters during regular appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show,” who challenges national NFL media members by name when he feels it’s warranted.

Everyone likes a good personality, including in New York. The Jets brought Rodgers here to be himself, and he said all the right things Wednesday.

He intends to “mentor” young backup Zach Wilson, for example, in addition to playing winning football.

“He’s gonna make my life hell in practice,” Rodgers said with a smirk, alluding to a social media meme of one of Wilson’s previous interviews, “and I’m gonna make his life heaven off the field. Part of my goal here is to help him get his confidence back.”

New York is not the big, bad media market it’s always made out to be, either. It’s more about how the individual feels or perceives the pressure. Rodgers has had rabbit ears in the past, and that’s a dangerous quality to have here.

But for now, the slate is clean. And Rodgers is embracing his new stage. He clearly understands it will be different. He warmly said that he’s “heard a lot about the New York media” and “he’s looking forward to meeting you all and starting a relationship.”

“I’ve been in Green Bay for 18 years,” he said. “That’s a long time in a small town, and it’s been great. I grew up in a small town. When you grow up in a tiny little town in Northern California, you dream about … living in a big city and having places to go eat and interesting things to do.”

He simultaneously identified that winning for the proud and starved Jets fan base could be “similar” to winning “in a city like Green Bay” because “you go down in history, and there’s something special about adding that to your legacy.”

Maybe they’re similar when the team is winning. Adversity and controversy and even Rodgers’ reactions to those challenges won’t play the same here as they do in Small Town USA, though.

Still, who can say this honeymoon phase won’t blend right into a Super Bowl run?

Rodgers was a Jet on Wednesday. Rodgers was talking about championships.

Maybe, as Hackett said, everything has changed.