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Jordan Rodgers Scores SEC TV Gig, Gets Slammed By ‘Bachelorette’ Rival Chad Johnson And More

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 01:56 PST, Jul 4, 2016

Jordan Rodgers has scored a mystery TV gig at SEC Network, further fueling rumors that he signed on to ABC’s The Bachelorette to boost his career and not to find love with JoJo Fletcher. Rodgers’ new TV job was first mentioned by Fox Sports’ Clay Travis, who congratulated the Bachelorette frontrunner on getting a “rose” from SEC Network.

Rodgers, a Vanderbilt University alum, was the Commodore quarterback from 2011 to 2012. Rodgers threw for 4,063 yards and 24 touchdowns during his two SEC seasons. Jordan is also the brother of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and has long been accused of not signing on to the ABC reality show for the “right reasons.”

Indeed, when news of Jordan’s new SEC Network gig was posted, his Bachelorette foe, Chad Johnson, quickly took to Twitter to accuse his rival of playing Bachelorette producers — and JoJo.

“Looks like @JRodgers11 got what he wanted out of all of this,” Johnson tweeted. “Way to play your role buddy! #TheBachelorette.”

SEC Network and Jordan Rodgers have not yet provided details on what the Vanderbilt alum’s role at the sports network will be, but it’s interesting to note that the SEC Network is owned by ESPN, which is a Disney company like ABC.

It’s also not a total shock that Jordan Rodgers has landed another job in television. According to Heavy.com, Jordan’s father, Ed Rodgers, recently revealed to KRCR TV that his son was planning to pursue a career in sportscasting. Ed Rodgers went so far as to say that Jordan’s stint on the popular reality dating show would help his chances at success as a sportscaster. There have been other reports that Jordan Rodgers’ ultimate goal was to be the next star of The Bachelor.

A source told Us Weekly that when Jordan realized his football career wasn’t going to pan out in the way that his brother Aaron’s has, he thought about other ways to become famous. Jordan Rodgers briefly took a job in business development for a Nashville sports medicine company, but after landing a bit part in the 2015 movie Pitch Perfect 2, he began to set his sights on the small screen.

“Originally, Jordan wanted to go on The Bachelorette to become the Bachelor,” the source told Us. “That was his goal.”

Jordan Rodgers has already denied accusations that he signed on to The Bachelorette for the “wrong reasons.” In an interview on Katie Nolan’s Garbage Time podcast, Jordan pointed out that every season someone is accused of having ulterior motives and that he just doesn’t worry about the rumors.

“Every season, isn’t there somebody that’s [accused of that]?” Rodgers said. “I’m not sure why [anybody] would have said it, because I feel I was there with very genuine intent, and I feel everybody knew that…It’s not true, I just laugh it off.”

Still, Jordan clearly became comfortable in front of the camera, besides initial reservations about how it would feel to find love on reality TV.

“I was very skeptical going in on what it would feel like to be on camera,” Rodgers told Nolan. “The first couple [dates] I was looking out the corner of my eye, like I [felt] like I’m acting weird, there’s someone watching me, there’s eight people standing around. It was hard to be myself. Even more weird than that is when it gets normal, and when you start to not even notice the camera. It’s hard for people to understand how real the relationship aspect can be, because of what you see on TV… [but] once you get past the weirdness of it, it can be pretty real.”

News of Jordan Rodgers’ new TV gig comes as former Bachelor star Ben Higgins and his final pick, Lauren Bushnell, landed a new reality show. But Jordan Rodgers is getting a lot more flack about his spinoff gig than the engaged Bachelor lovebirds are.

JoJo Fletcher has not commented on Jordan Rodgers’ new TV gig, but the Bachelorette star did admit to Entertainment Tonight that she knew who he was before her season of the ABC reality show started.

“A week before this whole thing started I think his name got leaked, and it was kind of all over the Internet, so, you know, it’s like ‘Jordan Rodgers, brother of Aaron’ — so that’s what I knew going into it,” JoJo said. “I don’t follow football closely, so it’s not like it made a huge difference, but I definitely knew that about him going into it.”

Take a look at the video below for more on Jordan Rodgers and his Bachelorette rivalry.

[Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]

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