He hadn’t forgotten how to backpedal. He hadn’t forgotten how to jog.
And most of all, of course, he hadn’t forgotten how to hit a Jets receiver 30 yards downfield in stride.
The opening of his 21-day practice window on Wednesday was one small step toward his miracle for Aaron Rodgers.
No one — not the doctors, not the Jets, not even Rodgers himself — knows for certain whether he can pull off what would be a historical comeback in record time and stamp himself as a marvel to modern science.
But he wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to try.
You can’t will an Achilles tear to heal, but try telling that to Aaron Rodgers.
There he was, the man in the red 8 jersey, three days before his 40th birthday, making another loud and proud statement about something Muhammad Ali said once, something that self-help author Napoleon Hill wrote once, and I paraphrase:
What the mind can conceive the body can achieve.
There he was, walking the talk 75 days after uttering these defiant words to Pat McAfee:
“Give me the doubts. Give me the timetables, give me all the things that you think can, should or will happen because all I need is that one little extra percent of inspiration. That’s all I need. So give me your doubts, give me your prognostications and then watch what I do.”
The football world is watching with its disbelieving eyes.
“This isn’t so much getting ready to play as much as it is a progression in his rehab,” Robert Saleh said. “He’s not cleared to fully play football.”
He would have to be by Dec. 20 to be activated off IR. And he could pump the brakes himself on any historic comeback attempt if and when the Jets are eliminated from the playoffs.
“If that bridge is crossed, that’ll be an organizational decision with him obviously part of it,” Saleh said.
Saleh is convinced that Rodgers is committed to playing in 2024 regardless of whether the unthinkable were to happen should he indeed return on Christmas Eve at home against the Commanders, or on Dec. 28 in Cleveland.
“I promise Aaron is not gonna do anything that puts himself in harm’s way,” Saleh said. “With that said though, he is driven, he is achieving things that have never been achieved with regards to this injury.”
Odds are this will all prove to be a moot point, because a loss Sunday at home to the Falcons would drop the Jets to 4-8. I have been president of the Wait Till Next Year campaign ever since the loss in Buffalo, and Rodgers’ comments to McAfee on Tuesday seemed to portend him erring on the side of Waiting Till Next Year in the likely event the Jets extend their playoff drought to 13 seasons.
Still, it’s easy for all of us, especially his awestruck coaches and teammates, to root for a 40-year-old future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback daring to dream The Impossible Dream at the end of a nightmare.
“Science rules,” Allen Lazard said, and laughed. “Science rules.”
To Rodgers’ former Packers teammate, this attempted comeback is not a surprise.
“Knowing his mindset, more so his stubbornness just to kinda prove everyone else wrong, it’s very on brand,” Lazard said.
Asked if he expects Rodgers to play this year, Lazard said: “Never say never, especially with him. To see him walking right now, how comfortable he is walking and hopping around and skipping and stuff, it’s quite impressive.”
If anyone inside the Jets Atlantic Health Training Center is thinking that Rodgers is making this more about him, none are saying.
“It’s hard to say that we’re not better with him out there on the field,” Lazard said.
Rodgers’ presence on the field and wisdom and the way he keeps it light in the meeting rooms are uplifting to them. Should he come back? Is it worth his while?
“How do you tell a person to not come back who’s one of the most competitive motherf—ers? He’s up there like Kobe Bryant-esque,” Quinton Jefferson told The Post. “So how can you tell a person like that?
“I know he got a house in California where it’s warm, the fact that he chooses to come back here and spend his free time with us and come out here and grind with us, it just shows you the kind of person he is, man.”
No one can dispute that there would be added risk for Rodgers behind that offensive line.
“He’s a guy who kinda understands you play the game above the neck, it becomes less risky to do something like that when you play more with your head and not with your body,” John Franklin-Myers told The Post. “As long as he’s comfortable with his decision, then we all back that. At the end of the day we want him to help this team win whether that be this year, next year, the future.”
Wait Till Next Year is something Aaron Rodgers refuses to allow himself to think. At least on the day when he took one small step toward the miracle he alone has seen from the beginning, and continues to see.