One could hardly argue that Aaron Rodgers‘s most disappointing season of his Hall of Fame-caliber career was the previous one. It must have been quite difficult for him to watch game after game on the sidelines, given his competitive temperament. Remarkably, though, it seems that this wasn’t his lowest moment from the previous year.
Contrary to common opinion, the Jets quarterback said in an interview with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated that his lowest moment of the previous season wasn’t sitting in the locker room at MetLife Stadium following his injury. The thing that really broke him was not the injury itself, but rather its aftermath.
The Super Bowl champion told Breer that the first several days following the injury were particularly debilitating, making it hard for him to go about his everyday business. His dislike of depending on medications for relief just made matters worse.
Aaron Rodgers talks about his miserable season
This made him much more miserable. And Rodgers hated the first few days following surgery, when all he could do was sleep and rely on assistance to use the restroom. He declared:
“The low point was not just sitting in the training room at MetLife, after it happened… It was flying home [to California] and then really the first 13 days not being mobile. It was hard. I had surgery out there with Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache.” “Having people take care of me, and I can’t really move, it’s a whole ordeal to just go to the bathroom and sleep. You’re in pain. I’m not a big pain med guy,”
The elite quarterback has remarkably only missed three seasons due to serious injuries in his more than two decades of playing: two fractured collarbones in 2013 and 2017, and a ruptured Achilles last year.
A-Rod was able to finish the season with Green Bay after his previous two injuries, but he was unable to do so for the Jets, indicating that the injury he had last year was the worst of his career. Nevertheless, there was one bright spot to the protracted hiatus from action.
