'Like any other game': Jets downplay facing Aaron Rodgers in Week 1 against Steelers

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Sauce Gardner shared a special handshake and plenty of laughs with Aaron Rodgers during their two years as teammates with the New York Jets.

They'll square off as opponents Sunday when Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers come to MetLife Stadium for one of the juiciest storylines in Week 1 of the NFL season.

Just don't expect the Jets to add any extra spice this week when it comes to talking about their former quarterback.

“I don't know,” a smiling Gardner said Tuesday. “I’m just preparing like any other game.”

Truth is, it's not quite that simple.

After all, it's not often that one of the greatest passers in league history is cut by a team after two years of Super Bowl aspirations that fizzled miserably — helped in large part by a season-ending injury four snaps into his debut with his new squad — and then signs, at 41, with one of the league's most decorated franchises.

And to top it off, Rodgers will take the field for the first time with his new team against his former team.

“I don’t care who’s back there,” insisted edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, who's on track to return from a torn Achilles tendon in Week 2 last season. “I've got a job to do for this team. And whoever the quarterback is, I get paid to put him down. So whoever’s back there, it doesn’t matter.”

Nope, no extra juice.

Oh, but then there's this: Justin Fields — who ended up replacing Rodgers in New York — will face the team for which he started last season before hitting the bench after leading the Steelers to a 4-2 start.

“I mean, yeah, the storyline’s crazy,” a smiling Fields acknowledged. “I mean, that’s why the NFL set us up for Week 1, just for that. But, yeah, it’s cool. Cool to kind of see that. And it’s gonna be fun going up against these guys on Sunday.”

All the hype, though, is for outside the Jets' facility.

“It’s no storyline for me,” Fields said. “It’s ball for me. So, I’ll let you guys kind of handle the storylines, the news lines and stuff like that. In the locker room, we just keep it straight ball.”

Rodgers came to the Jets in 2023 with lots of hype and even greater expectations, as the Jets were labeled Super Bowl contenders. But a torn Achilles tendon sunk New York's season just as it started, and then Rodgers and the Jets struggled to a 5-12 finish last year that ended up costing coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas their jobs.

Enter new coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, and a clean slate for the franchise. That meant the difficult decision by the new regime to move on from Rodgers in the offseason — followed by Rodgers publicly criticizing the way the team handled his departure.

Glenn, who has preached about the Jets focusing on the present and their own task at hand, bristled a bit when asked what he saw of Rodgers last season as the team was deciding the quarterback's future.

“That’s been gone,” Glenn said. “I’m not going to answer questions about guys that aren’t here and what I saw. Right now, I’m looking at what our guys can do.”

He was then asked what he has seen on film while scouting Rodgers.

“Just like I said, I’m not going to sit here and answer questions on what I saw back then,” said Glenn, who'll make his debut as an NFL head coach. “It’s not relevant to right now.”

Glenn did call Rodgers “a future Hall of Famer” who is “going to cause problems no matter what” when he takes the field. Glenn game-planned against him plenty when he was in Detroit as a defensive coordinator and as an assistant in New Orleans before that.

“He’s always been someone that really understands what the coordinator is thinking,” he said. “You can tell he does a lot of film study. Mentally, that never goes away. Physically, we all start to wane at some point as we get older, but I know at that position, when mentally you are on point, man, he makes it a challenge.

"On tape, you will continue to see that. When he was here, you see that.”

Gardner, whose handshake with Rodgers during which they pretend to smoke went viral, said it was “a great experience” learning on the practice field from a player with his experience. He also wouldn't be surprised if Rodgers used his departure from the Jets as a little bit of added fuel Sunday.

“I mean, you know, we are human,” Gardner said. “We use a lot of things as motivation and there’s things every day I use for motivation. I’m sure I could say the same thing. I’m sure there are guys in this locker room that can say the exact same thing, so, you know, that’s just how I feel about that.”

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New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn talks to reporters after a preseason NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in East Rutherford, N.J., Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin)

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers walks on the side lines during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Carolina Panthers, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Rusty Jones)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.

Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.

“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”

The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.

Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)