Aaron Rodgers, the weight of words and four more Thursday sports topics

Aaron Rodgers was barely into his first official news conference as a member of the New York Jets on Wednesday when he referenced the reason this was all happening.

The Jets' lone Super Bowl came more than 50 years ago, and Rodgers noted that the lone Lombardi Trophy in the lobby of the team's facility is "looking a little lonely."

And almost immediately, I had this thought: Is he going to regret saying that?

In a sports landscape where "championship or bust" is both something Karl-Anthony Towns said after the Rudy Gobert trade and the prevailing sentiment of a lot of fans, even Rodgers slyly addressing a common goal of winning a Super Bowl can create the burden of expectations.

We saw it this season, certainly, with the Timberwolves. From the moment the Wolves made the Gobert trade, every decision and every game was magnified.

And a year that came up far short of even medium-sized expectations — even though it did involve just the third trip to the playoffs for the franchise since 2004 — became a source of tension that had the Wolves' best players throwing punches and picking up chairs.

That angst makes it easier to suggest things like a Towns trade, the reasons for which I laid out on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.

We see it with the Wild and how the narrative can change quickly. In 2021, losing a competitive first-round playoff series with Vegas was lauded. Last season, playing a similar series with the Blues was labeled a disappointment.

This year's series with Dallas has unfolded in eerily similar fashion to last year, with the Wild taking a 2-1 series lead only to now trail 3-2 and face possible elimination Friday. Can an outcome be both expected and disappointing at the same time? It sure feels that way.

Even the Vikings' approach to the NFL draft feels weightier than in past years because of last year's 13-win surprise and because there is at least a chance they could pick a QB this season.

Maybe sports are at their best when they are both fun and serious. Perhaps it's possible to be entertained and enraged.

But maybe expectations are a weight that athletes and games don't deserve to carry.

Here are four other things you should know today:

*Along these very lines, take two minutes and listen to Giannis Antetokounmpo respond to a reporter's question about whether the Bucks' season — which ended in a surprising 4-1 series loss to Miami — was a failure.

*The other side of that stunning No. 8 vs. No. 1 upset, of course, was Miami and Jimmy Butler. The onetime Wolves star was masterful all series, including a 42-point effort in leading the Heat back from an 18-point deficit in the clincher.

Butler and Tom Thibodeau's Knicks clinching a spot to face each other in the East semis on the same night Andrew Wiggins scored 20 for the Warriors as they took a 3-2 series lead over Sacramento was quite possibly not the trifecta of results that Wolves fans needed this week.

*Bailey Ober has a 3.74 ERA in 32 starts for the Twins since 2021. There should be no need to rush Kenta Maeda back into the rotation.

*If you don't love late night hockey, blame the Panthers. Florida upending the Bruins on Wednesday to force a Game 6 Friday bumped the Wild's game to an 8:30 p.m. start (realistically, more like 8:45). On the other hand, it should give West 7th Street enthusiasts a chance to get louder.