Fireman Ed has an influential backer in his plight with the Jets organization.
Last week, the famous Jets fan — whose real name is Ed Anzalone — claimed that he is getting “phased out” of getting shown on the MetLife Stadium video board by the team.
As no topics are out of bounds on Aaron Rodgers’ weekly appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show,” this was a situation that they needed to get to the bottom of.
“What’s up? You don’t like Fireman Ed anymore? What’s going on?” McAfee asked Rodgers.
“I love Fireman Ed. I don’t know,” Rodgers said.
At this point, McAfee producer Ty Schmit launched into an impression of Fireman Ed saying that the “Jets are trying to phase me out.”
Rodgers hinted that this is a situation that will be ameliorated.
“We’ll see on Halloween. When we’re back home, we’ll see,” Rodgers said, seeming to imply that Fireman Ed’s longstanding spot on the video board will be restored.
Schmit returned to his impression, saying that he’s the greatest thing to happen to the franchise in the last 20 years and the team doesn’t appreciate him.
“I do [appreciate him],” Rodgers said. “I want to see him back up there.”
Rodgers said he’s heard about the controversy but didn’t “notice” the apparent omission happening during the games at MetLife Stadium.
The Jets quarterback analogized the situation to “the time where they tried to phase out the bikini girls” on the scoreboard in Green Bay, and there was fan revolt.
“There was a big backlash,” Rodgers laughed.
In a video on Instagram last week, Fireman Ed was adamant that something was happening in the Jets’ in-stadium production where he wasn’t being shown as much in big moments.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but they’re phasing us out,” he said. “I’d like to know if somebody knows anything, please let me know, because it’s evident that it’s happening. And it needs to stop because we need home-field advantage. That’s what we have and we need to keep it going.
Something is going on, so please let me know if you know something.”