ESPN takes a deep dive into Aaron Rodgers’ final days

Here’s some crap Aaron Rodgers might not want wasting his time reading.

I didn’t write it this time. It’s a #LongRead from Tim Keown of ESPN.com, who dives into the final days of Aaron Rodgers’ NFL career.

The mood is gently biting and critical of Rodgers. And like many #LongReads, the best Easter Egg is through the thousand words.

At one point, Keown described the awkward atmosphere at the first practice after Monday night’s loss to the Bills, a defeat marked by an interception that Rodgers blamed on receiver Mike Williams for running the wrong route.

“It emphasized the friction between the artist and those around him,” Keown writes. “Rodgers’ constant agonizing over ‘bringing guys along’ and ‘being a better leader’ and ‘setting the tone’ always carries an undercurrent of superiority, a verbal pat on the head. Even his standard sideline supervision after a botched drive is almost always a disappointed father.”

Williams spoke at length with Keown about being called out.

“How can I explain it?” Williams said. “Aaron wants to win. He sees the game from a different perspective. He’s been in the league a long time, seen everything, knows what he wants. He’s been in the same offense his whole career, so if he wants it on this certain way, you must do it the certain way.”

Keown writes that Williams did not seem upset. But he admitted he didn’t like being called out.

“No, no, no,” Williams said, “but it is what it is. . . . I’ve been in this league for a while now, you know? You live, you learn. You see so many things happen, and you just have to go into next-game mentality, new-day mentality.

“People sent (the video) to me. They ask me if I saw it. I say, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I can see it, but I’m an adult, you know? Make the next piece, right? Isn’t that what they tell us?”

The youngest player on the team had this to say about the oldest player on the team: “The drive for me wanting to play my best is not wanting to disappoint him,” rookie running back Braelon Allen told Keown. “There are challenges, especially with how particular and detailed he is within the scheme. He expects everyone to be where they need to be when they need to be there. It’s a lot, you know?”

It’s certainly a lot. If the team wins, it is welcome. If it loses, it’s exhausting.

And that’s the bottom line takeaway from Keown’s article. Rodgers is exhausting. And the Jets seem exhausted. Which makes it hard to imagine the Jets will try again with a guy who, by all accounts, will become harder to deal with as his skills diminish.