Michael Strahan is interested to see how Aaron Rodgers handles the fabled New York spotlight.
The former Giants great, 51, joined “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Thursday night.
Asked by Fallon whether Rodgers will be a good fit in the Big Apple, Strahan wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know if Aaron Rodgers and the media [will fit],” Strahan said. “The media here is kind of like guilty until proven innocent.
“They don’t like you — you have to make them like you and I think he comes in already off darkness retreat, so they’re gonna be like, ‘You know, this guy …’
“I think they’re gonna probably try to give him a little bit of benefit of the doubt, but they’re looking. So it’s gonna be interesting to see how he handles the media because they can’t be tamed here in New York, they’re tough.”
In February, before the idea of Rodgers playing on the Jets became a forgone conclusion, Strahan’s former teammate Tiki Barber wondered if the star quarterback was too “sensitive” for the nation’s biggest market after Rodgers chided NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“Ian’s job is to source information about things that are going on in the NFL world,” Barber said on WFAN.
“Earlier this week, Aaron Rodgers took some real shots at Ian Rapoport, basically saying, ‘He doesn’t know anyone in my inner circle, he doesn’t have my number’ … basically, ‘shut the hell up Ian.’
“As I’m reading the full quotes from his Pat McAfee weekly appearance, talking about Schefter and Rapoport … it just made me start to realize that if he is that sensitive that he gets upset that people, reporters, opinion-makers, influencers — whatever — want to talk about him, he is going to struggle in New York. I don’t know if I want him in New York if this is going to be his reaction to things that don’t matter.”
Now that Rodgers has joined the Jets, his relationship with the New York media has begun with a honeymoon period.
“I’ve been to a ton of big New York press conferences over 37 years, but the Jets and Aaron Rodgers aced that one,” former Post columnist and current Rodgers biographer Ian O’Connor tweeted after the quarterback’s introductory presser on Wednesday. “About as decisive a presser victory as I’ve ever attended. Rex Ryan’s intro is up there too.”