Jets owner Woody Johnson pulled out all the stops to land Aaron Rodgers.
When the two met at Rogers’ Malibu home with key Jets figures last offseason, Johnson came away with a unique gift.
“He gave me honey from the Queen’s garden,” Rogers said of the former U.S. ambassador to Britain.
Come again? Honey from the garden of Queen Elizabeth II?
“It’s a wonderful gift,” said Rogers, who has long been interested in history.
The quarterback revealed Johnson’s gesture in the upcoming biography, “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers,” about the four-time NFL MVP, written by former Post columnist Ian O’Connor.
According to the British royal family, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, was so proud of the honey produced by the Beckingham Palace hives that she even gave Pope Francis a jar of honey when they first met in 2014.
Nine years later, Johnson, who was the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. under the Trump administration, used that honey to mend his relationship with Rodgers, who played for the Packers for 18 years at the time.
The Jets owner, along with his brother and vice president Christopher Johnson, GM Joe Douglas, head coach Robert Saleh, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and team president Hymi Elhaj, visited with Rodgers and his agent, David Dunn of Athletes First.
In a March 2023 meeting, the quarterback was convinced that the Jets should be his preferred location for a trade.
Rogers, then 39, decided not to retire after a four-day dark retreat in the wilderness of southern Oregon.
Christopher Johnson, known as the friendlier of the two brothers, arrived in Malibu ahead of other team executives and had a one-on-one conversation with Rogers, which was seen as helpful to the Jets.
As a result, one prominent NFL figure with ties to the Johnson family wondered if the kindly older brother was intentional about making a first impression.
Rogers called the Jets’ sending Christopher to the first meeting a deliberate strategy, saying, “If that was their grand plan, it would be genius.”
He returned home early after working out, and the Jets’ vice president was waiting for him.
“We were just him and me for 20 minutes,” Rogers said. “I love Chris so much. No matter what happens, I think I’ll be friends with him for the rest of my life.”
Rogers told O’Connor that he spent most of the five-hour summit talking to Saleh inside his beachfront villa while other attendees sat on a deck overlooking the Pacific.
“[Woody] “He didn’t really say much,” Rogers said. “There wasn’t much of a ‘Woody Show.’ But when he did say something, he said all the right things. He wanted to win. He was willing to spend money and bring in the right people, and I liked him. I liked Woody.”
Rogers mentions in the book the location where the Jets met, a property he reportedly purchased in 2019 for $28 million with his then-girlfriend, racing star Danica Patrick.
“I didn’t buy it from anybody,” Rogers said.
