The Jets have lost Aaron Rodgers to injury for the rest of the year. Plus: ESPN will carry a “Toy Story”-themed simulcast of an NFL game; Oregon State and Washington State have won a restraining order against the Pac-12; Fox Sports’ Mike Pereira could also miss the season.
TV-heavy Jets lose star QB Rodgers for season
New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers suffered a Achilles injury during the first quarter of Monday’s season opener against the Bills and will miss the remainder of the season, the team said Tuesday. Rodgers, who was making his Jets debut, played just four snaps before suffering the injury.
The Jets’ acquisition of Rodgers — one of the league’s most prominent players during his time with the Green Bay Packers — turned the long-moribund franchise into one of the league’s glamour teams. Nine of the Jets’ 16 remaining games are scheduled for primetime, holiday or late Sunday afternoon windows, including a Black Friday game against the Dolphins that cannot be flexed out. (ESPN.com 9.11)
ESPN to carry “Toy Story” simulcast of Falcons-Jaguars game
ESPN announced Monday that ESPN+ and Disney+ will carry an animated “Toy Story”-themed alternate presentation of the October 1 Falcons-Jaguars NFL International Series game from London. Players will be represented by animated avatars on an in-universe playing field, with real-life gameplay simulated in real time. It will be the second animated simulcast on ESPN networks this year, following an NHL game in March in which players were animated to look like characters from the Disney Channel show “Big City Greens.”
The “Toy Story” broadcast will have a separate broadcast team consisting of analyst Booger McFarland alongside play-by-play voice Drew Carter and 12-year old sideline reporter Pepper Persley. (ESPN PR)
OSU, WSU, win restraining order against Pac-12
Oregon State and Washington State, the only schools remaining in the Pac-12 after this season, won an temporary restraining order on Monday preventing the conference from holding meetings until a court decides whether its ten departing members can continue to vote on league matters. In a lawsuit filed last week, the two remaining schools argued that Pac-12 bylaws prevent members who have issued an early “notice of withdrawal” from having a seat on the board of directors, and hence a right to vote.
The key issue is the division of the various Pac-12 assets, including the Pac-12 Networks. Oregon State and Washington State would split control of all of the conference’s assets if it remains in operation after this season. In the event that the ten departing schools retain voting rights and vote to dissolve the conference, all of those assets would be divided evenly among the full current membership.
A hearing is expected in the coming weeks, per the San Jose Mercury-News. (Lawsuit PDF 9.8, Mercury-News 9.11)
Fox rules analyst Pereira could miss season
Fox NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira said on social media Monday that he may miss the entire NFL season due to back troubles that will necessitate surgery. Pereira has been with Fox since 2010, and though he was not the first official to hold a TV role (NBA referee Mendy Rudolph was a regular on the NBA on CBS games in the 1970s), he inaugurated the role of modern rules analyst. He was replaced by Dean Blandino on Sunday’s game. (NYP 9.11)
