NFL
Who’ll Last Longer in Football, Aaron Rodgers or His Brother Jordan?
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterPublished18 Jun 2020
Jordan Rodgers’ career in football now has a shot at lasting longer than that of his NFL quarterback brother. The most recent development in his broadcasting career certainly bodes well for him at the same time that the Green Bay Packers are delivering an unmistakable message to Aaron Rodgers that his playing days are numbered.
Aaron Rodgers received a shock during the 2020 NFL draft
RELATED: Brett Favre Says Aaron Rodgers Isn’t Going Anywhere Soon
The Green Bay Packers’ bombshell move in the first round of the NFL draft nearly two months ago remains the talk of the league. Not only did general manager Brian Gutekunst select a quarterback while incumbent Aaron Rodgers is still (presumably) in the prime of his career, but he did so by moving up in the first round.
Taking Jordan Love when observers were nearly unanimous that the Packers needed help at wide receiver and elsewhere was stunning to fans, so one can only imagine how Rodgers felt as he watched.
The 2019 season marked the eighth time in 12 years as a starter that Rodgers surpassed 4,000 yards, and his ratio of 26 touchdown passes to four interceptions was even better than his stellar history in that department.
Rodgers will turn 37 years old this season and carries a huge salary – he’s in the midst of a four-year, $134 million contract – so the Packers were planning for the future by drafting Love. Until draft day, though, the assumption was “the future” was 2023 or beyond. Now, Rodgers could be gone from Green Bay by 2021 and out of football by the end of 2023.
Jordan Rodgers has landed a high-profile job
The Southeastern Conference is the 800-pound gorilla of college football, led by perennial national championship contender Alabama and backed by Georgia and several other potent programs. Consequently, being associated with the SEC in any fashion looks better on a resume than, say, being involved with the ACC.
That’s why Jordan Rodgers has to be very pleased at the moment. The former Vanderbilt quarterback, the brother of the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers, is getting a promotion and replacing one of the biggest names in the business. Renowned SEC expert Paul Finebaum is leaving SEC Nation, ESPN’s game-day preview show, and Jordan Rodgers will be stepping aboard, The New York Post reported.
Finebaum will remain with ESPN but will focus on broader college football storylines on SportsCenter and various other TV and radio productions.
Jordan Rodgers, 31, who gained widespread notoriety as a winner of the 2016 season of The Bachelorette, the long-running ABC reality series, is expected to do a combination of work on the studio show and commentary on a night game each Saturday.
Rodgers helped Vanderbilt to bowl games in each of his two years there. After his season on the reality show, he joined the SEC Network as a studio analyst in 2016. The impending move will give him his greatest exposure yet, setting the table for bigger assignments down the road – especially if ABC and ESPN pick up larger pieces of the NFL broadcast rights in upcoming negotiations.
Jordan Rodgers’ personal life is always a hot topic
Jordan Rodgers was to have been married this past Saturday to JoJo Fletcher, to whom he proposed during the 2016 season finale of The Bachelorette. Rodgers proposed to Fletcher again last year. However, the wedding is now on hold until some time next year, a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The other relationship dynamic involving Rodgers that seems to interest everyone involves his immediate family. Curiosity about the brothers picked up during Jordan Rodgers’ season on The Bachelorette, and it came out that Aaron Rodgers maintained close relationships with few if any family members.
Family patriarch Ed Rodgers told The New York Times in 2017 that he wasn’t on speaking terms with Aaron, who was conspicuously absent from the episode of the reality show in which Fletcher met her future in-laws.
For his part, Aaron said that he hadn’t been following Jordan’s status on the TV show. Reports trace the tension within the family to when Aaron began dating Olivia Munn in 2014. That relationship ended, and the Green Bay Packers quarterback is currently dating retired race car driver Danica Patrick.
