Early in October, after New York Jets owner Woody Johnson had fired head coach Robert Saleh after a 2-3 start, a source with ties to the Johnson family was attempting to contextualize the future of the franchise and turned the conversation into an unexpected direction. Despite 12 games still left on the schedule, staffers were already feeling an uneasy sense of the season unraveling. Saleh’s firing had been unnecessarily messy, general manager Joe Douglas was both powerless and looking over his shoulder, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers seemed agitated with ownership.
Quietly, some staffers began to wonder if the only steadying force would be something entirely outside the realm of football.