How will Aaron Rodgers fare vs. NY media? Two Packers reporters offer insight

Aaron Rodgers’ success with the Jets — or lack thereof — will be determined on the field. But it is likely he will excel in at least one visible off-field task.

The notion that he will be intimidated by the New York-area media after 18 years in tiny Green Bay is, in a word, laughable.

In fact, that is exactly what Rodgers himself said when asked during training camp whether the media spotlight gave him pause before he signed with the Jets.

“I’m aware of the New York media,” he said. “They’re phenomenal. They can be tough. But I laughed at certain individuals in the media who would say, ‘He can’t handle the New York media.’ ”

Then he smirked and said, “OK,” making it clear that he is eager for the challenge.

“I look forward to tough questions,” he said. “I’d rather have tough questions than softballs. I’d rather have to think up here than be able to spout off some rhetoric on autopilot. It’s just not my personality.”

He added, “There’s going to be some tough times during the season and some times where people are loving us up. I enjoy the entire trek up the mountain.”

It was vintage Rodgers, who in his early interactions with journalists has turned on the charm and given long, thoughtful answers to a wide variety of questions.

He is smart, he knows it, and he is not shy about wanting to show it off.

Preseason is the easy part, though. Rodgers is undefeated as a Jet and is viewed by many fans as a franchise savior. What’s not to like?

But what happens if the team is 2-4 going into Giants Week? Reporters who have known him for years say he likely will handle tough times deftly, too.

Tom Silverstein, who covered Rodgers’ entire career for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Rob Demovsky, who did the same for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and ESPN, praised Rodgers for his willingness to talk football even in down times.

As for other subjects, that can get complicated.

“I made the joke when this first went down that there’s no Page Six in the Green Bay Press-Gazette,” Demovsky said. “Well, there is page six. It just has the farm reports and fishing reports on it. It doesn't have Aaron Rodgers sighted at this place with this person.”

In his early months in New York, Rodgers did embrace coverage even of his off-field adventures as he got to know the city, but that all was in good fun.

Demovsky once made the mistake of wondering whether something happening in Rodgers’ personal life might be affecting his play.

“That did not go over too well,” the reporter said.

The Jets expect Rodgers to speak to reporters primarily on Wednesdays and after games, as he did in Green Bay.

Tuesdays are reserved for “The Pat McAfee Show,” now an ESPN property, his preferred venue for breaking news.

Demovsky said that when Rodgers first began appearing with McAfee, he would listen casually while running errands or working out at the gym.

“Once topics started to get a little bit more serious from him, like being unhappy here to the COVID stuff, the vaccination stuff, then it became mandatory,” Demovksy said. “Like: I have to sit at my computer, record this and write a story about it.”

Said Silverstein, “Anything he's going to say controversial he's going to do there, where he's not challenged on any of it. He's not going to bring that to a place where he is going to be challenged. He's smart that way.”

But when it came to day-to-day news about games and strategy and such, Rodgers would stand by his locker for a half-hour or more on Wednesdays, happy to engage.

He knew reporters’ names and even some of their personal details, something that began creeping into his interactions with New York reporters by mid-summer.

Demovsky and Silverstein said the trickiest thing about covering Rodgers is that he is so savvy one often must interpret what he is getting at.

“If it doesn't go well, you'll have to get an Aaron Rodgers Cryptic Criticism Dictionary,” Demovsky said, “because he will find ways to criticize everything from the play-calling to route running to officiating, and sometimes it's reading between the lines. But it's there.”

Said Silverstein, “He will send out a lot of messages you have to read between the lines. And as a journalist it kind of handcuffs you, because he's not really saying it directly. He’s implying it.”

While the back page headlines in New York might be harsher than anything in Wisconsin media, Rodgers will not be surprised by the volume of journalists around him.

If anything, there will be fewer than with the Packers, who draw every local television station and newspaper outlet from three different markets.

Again, the real test will come if things go wrong on the field. But Rodgers has been there before, even in a career with more ups than downs.

“He will not go into it without thinking through whatever it is he wants to say or figuring out exactly what it is he's going to be asked,” Silverstein said. “He's an extremely intelligent guy.

“He spends a lot of time thinking about what he's going to say and what he wants to get across. I think he will view it as a challenge, as putting up his intelligence and ability to dissect things in life up against anybody. I really think that that he has that kind of confidence.”

Covering Rodgers always has offered “edge-of-your-seat stuff to write about,” Demovsky said. “I think good, bad or whatever, it'll be an interesting ride.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.