By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Friday, September 15, 2024

Suffering is an important component of Grand Slam success, Rafael Nadal famously stated.  

Football fandom has confirmed fairly painful for John McEnroe, too.

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A self-described "long-suffering" New York Jets fan, McEnroe interviewed star quarterback Aaron Rodgers previous to his Jets debut on Monday Night Football.

Hall of Famer McEnroe was a visitor commentator on ESPN2 throughout the ManningForged telecast of the Jets vs. Bills sport when Rodgers tore his Achilles whereas being tackled throughout the opening collection.

The picture of Rodgers being carted off the sphere simply 4 performs into his Jets debut prompted host Eli Manning to ask McEnroe: "John, you're always kind of known for your calm demeanor, how did you react to seeing this?"

Queens native McEnroe, who has been a loyal Jets fan for the reason that age of 10 when he watched Broadway Joe Namath lead the crew to the Super Bowl championship, pulled no punches in his response.

"Oh my God, I said way back when once, You Cannot Be Serious," McEnroe stated. "I've been told by my wife never to say that again. But I've got to say when I saw that I definitely scream that as loud as I could.

"You cannot make this up. This is past perception. We felt snake-bitten for thus lengthy. You bear in mind the similarities wtih Brett Favre when he got here in like 15 years in the past. He was an analogous age, there was excessive hopes. He was certainly one of my favourite gamers of all time. Never missed a sport, was at all times dressing up. He had a terrific begin, was 8-3, then he bought damage.

"Now you look at Aaron Rodgers I went and interivewed him a couple of days ago and he made me believe it."

In that pre-game interview Rodgers informed McEnroe of the Jets Super Bowl aspirations: "We expect to go out there and dominate and make a run to the Super Bowl, why else am I here? What else are we doing?"

McEnroe, who wore a barely skeptical expression of "these are the Jets we're talking about something bad is bound to happen here", questioned Rodgers on if he had any issues of tarnishing his legacy in New York.

"Did they ever take those [Grand Slam titles] away at the end of your career?" Rodgers requested McEnroe. "They couldn't take that sh*t away, you're still a legend.

"And you are at all times going to be a legend."

Photo credit score: John McEnroe Tennis Academy/Sportime RI 

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