From start to finish, the New York Jets’ 2024 debut was a disaster. 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers looked like a shadow of his former self. The San Francisco 49ers dismantled New York’s vaunted defense without much resistance.
And now some are even questioning the toughness of one of the Jets’ best players, Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner.
Some time in the Monday Night Football broadcast, it was mentioned that Gardner had left the game, but … apparently not for medical reasons. NFL fans on Twitter eventually speculated that Gardner may have taken himself out of the game after a hard tackle against the explosive Deebo Samuel of the 49ersIt was assumed that he no longer wanted to do this job.
Gardner eventually returned in the Jets’ loss, but not before the cat was out of the bag. In a now-deleted post on Twitter, Gardner denied that he took himself out of the game because he didn’t want to tackle Samuel again:
Listen, there are a lot of fast-paced scenes in today’s NFL games.
Our over-obsession with instant, enlightening information as a society rarely means there’s something evil or underhanded going on behind the scenes just because we haven’t heard anything more. Seriously, folks, NFL players get injured and have valid, undisclosed reasons to leave games all the time. Way more than you think! We shouldn’t be quick to question their character just because it’s a sick twist on the burden of proof ideal.
Still, Gardner could have handled the matter better in public. Either you don’t address the situation at all because you don’t owe anything to the fans who talk about you on social media and bringing attention to it makes it a thing, or you say you’re freaking out (which is probably what happened). Including the crying laughing emoji in a deleted tweet out of frustration makes it seem like Gardner really did leave the game because he didn’t want to attack Samuel.
It’s a communication error that he could have avoided.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Sauce Gardner denied leaving the field because he didn’t want to attack Deebo Samuel again
