Imagine sitting in the NFL schedule makers’ suite with full decision-making power and seeing an opportunity to pit the New York Jets against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football for the season-opener.
Here you have Sean Payton in a rematch with Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, whom Payton ridiculously hurled under the bus for a perceived inability to coach Russell Wilson, just months before Payton then shoved Wilson out the door and endured the biggest dead-cap hit in NFL history for his troubles. You have a healthy Aaron Rodgers, who would undoubtedly back Hackett amid the week-long rehashing of words, not to mention be enduring his own unpredictable personal publicity cycle that tends to follow him wherever he goes (a much-anticipated book on Rodgers’s life is set to be released a few weeks before, and Rodgers could very well be on the campaign trail for Robert Kennedy Jr.