Aaron Rodgers made sure to rub salt in the Denver Broncos and Sean Payton’s wounds after they had fallen to the Jets, 31-21 at home on Sunday.
The injured quarterback took to social media to celebrate the victory and congratulate his offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett for defeating his former team.
Hackett had briefly coached in Denver last year until he was fired in the middle of the season after a brutally slow start.
Payton, the current Broncos coach, took shots at the job Hackett did during a training camp interview with USA Today, which infuriated many Jets players, including Rodgers.
“W. #hackett,” Rodgers wrote on X, formerly Twitter, along with a heart emoji.
Rodgers wasn’t the only one to have some fun at Payton and the Broncos expense.
The Jets social media team also took the opportunity to rib the Broncos on X in a post after the win.
“when you lose to the ‘offseason champs,’” the post read with a photo of actor Kevin James, who played Payton in the movie “Home Team.”
During the summer Payton had taken critical shots at the Jets and Hackett while speaking with the national outlet.
It quickly became a rallying cry for New York.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said during the interview. “And that happened here [with the Broncos]. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much [expletive] time trying to win the offseason — the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that. The Jets did that this year. You watch. ‘Hard Knocks,’ all of it. I can see it coming.”
Rodgers later responded in an interview on NFL Network telling Payton to “keep my coaches’ names out of his mouth.”
Sauce Garner also took a shot on X at the Broncos after the win.
“Jets Country…….LETS RIDE,” the cornerback wrote with a horse emoji.
Hackett was given a game ball after the win and Jets head coach Robert Saleh said it was a special game for the offensive coordinator,
“We wanted to come in and get a win today for him and we did that,” Breece Hall told reporters after the win. “The better coach, the better team won.”
The Broncos are 1-4 in the Payton’s first season.
Read more
