Aaron Rodgers addresses family rift, political ambitions with RFK Jr. and

Aaron Rodgers knows he’s “kind of an enigma.” Now the private star is letting people in like never before in his new Netflix docuseries. The aptly titled Aaron Rodgers: Enigma follows the New York Jets quarterback as he recovers from last year’s Achilles tear. In the three-part series, he opens up about his life on and off the field.

“Nobody knew exactly what was going on with me off the field, what I believed,” Rodgers began. “Thanks to the work I did on myself, I felt much more comfortable in my own skin. But I think it’s a constant battle to work on my communication off the field.”

Rodgers knows he’s “been cast as the villain, especially the last few years.”

“There was definitely times where it was part of the battle being able to fight back … but it was heartbreaking having my reputation take a shot,” he said.

“Who am I? Am I the football player, am I the off-the-field guy?” Rodgers asked. “I used to really think I could separate the two, but you can’t. And that’s something I wrestled with for many, many years.”

Fans will now hear directly from Rodgers on various personal matters. That includes everything from his family rift that was made public on The Bachelorette to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to be his running mate.

Here are some of the biggest off-the-field revelations.

Table of Contents

Rodgers addresses family drama … and calls The Bachelorette ‘bullshit’

“When I became real famous … I heard from a lot of people, including family members, where it was like ‘Your life is too big, we need you to be smaller. Be smaller. Don’t talk about your life.’ It always hurt me because I just feel like you don’t see me,” Rodgers recalled. “[Fame] is not something I ever desired or wanted other than playing on Sundays.”

Life changed for the athlete after he won the Super Bowl in 2011.

“Definitely relationships changed after that. Friendships, family. It wasn’t like I was super-duper close with everybody in the family. I was close with my little brother,” Rodgers said, referring to younger brother Jordan. “But in actuality, it goes back to stuff from high school that kind of made me feel distant. Stuff in college, stuff post-college.”

Jordan Rodgers exposed the family rift in 2016 when he competed on JoJo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette.

“I was quiet about it because I thought the best way to do it was just don’t talk about it publicly. And what did they do? They go on a bullshit show and leave two empty chairs,” Rodgers continued.

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The athlete is referring to the infamous scene during hometown dates when Fletcher went to Chico, Calif., to meet Jordan’s parents, eldest brother, Luke, and Luke’s girlfriend. Noticeably absent was Rodgers and his girlfriend at the time, Olivia Munn.

“They all agreed this was a good thing to do? To leave two empty chairs on a stupid dating show that my brother just went on to get famous — his words not mine — that he ended up winning,” Rodgers continued. He said that the dinner was during the NFL season, which would have made it nearly impossible for the then Green Bay Packers quarterback to attend.

“I was never asked to go,” Rodgers said, “not that I would have gone.”

Rodgers mostly quiet about famous relationships

The athlete made it clear he doesn’t think fame is something that should come along with his job but admitted he did himself no “favors” by the women he dated.

“I enjoyed my private life, but winning the Super Bowl changed all of it,” he said.

“I had never been paparazzi’d until I went to Hawaii in 2011, and there were all these pictures of me in the water rubbing sand on myself, exfoliating my skin,” he added. “I was like, ‘F***, life’s different now.'”

“Now, I didn’t do myself any favors with some of the girls I dated after that who were in the public eye,” Rodgers admitted. “I definitely hated it at first. Like really despised it.”

Images of Rodgers with his famous exes including Munn, Danica Patrick and ex-fiancée Shailene Woodley flashed onscreen. However, he didn’t talk about any of the women.

Yes, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked Rodgers to be his running mate

In the second episode, Rodgers and Kennedy are filmed going on a hike together in early 2024.

“Have you thought about going into politics?” Kennedy asked Rodgers.

“I got into politics back when I was a sophomore in high school,” Rodgers replied, explaining he became particularly interested in the topic after learning about the death of President John F. Kennedy.

“Honestly your uncle’s death … was my first entrance into pulling the veil back, as I call it,” Rodgers added. “Like what’s actually going on?”

Rodgers referenced the Warren Commission report that concluded JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone.

“This is what they said happened? This can’t be real,” Rodgers told Kennedy. “Then I went to [University of California] Berkeley, which is a crazy political environment. It’s super leftist, and I grew up in a really conservative small-town environment, so that was fun to have my ideologies tested.”

Rodgers said he’s been “disheartened forever” by America’s two-party system.

“I really didn’t have any hope in politics until, really, until you announced your candidacy,” he told Kennedy.

Kennedy asked Rodgers to be his VP after their hike, the athlete recounted on camera on Feb. 20. Rodgers mulled whether to retire and go into politics or play two or three more years in the league.

“I love football. I want to keep playing, and I hated the way last year went,” Rodgers declared, who was still working his way through his Achilles recovery. “There’s still some unfinished business in New Jersey.”

Kennedy dropped out of the race in August and threw his support behind Donald Trump. He’s now the president-elect’s pick to run the Health and Human Services Department.

Rodgers briefly touches on being labeled a conspiracy theorist

In March, it was leaked that Rodgers was on Kennedy’s veep shortlist while he was in Costa Rica on an ayahuasca retreat. Images of headlines about his vaccine skepticism flash onscreen. So did reports that claimed Rodgers said the Sandy Hook shooting was a “government inside job.” (Rodgers denied this in a statement.)

“I’m supposedly a Sandy Hook denier now too?” Rodgers said. “Misrepresentation is a trigger for sure. Trauma, trigger whatever.”

About vaccination-gate …

In the final episode, Rodgers walks through his infamous “Yeah, I’m immunized” line that launched an online firestorm.

“We never did the flu shots growing up; my dad just didn’t believe in it,” Rodgers said. While he may have misled the media with that response, he reiterated the NFL and entire Green Bay Packers organization knew he sought alternative methods for the COVID-19 vaccination.

“Everybody in my f***ing circle knew I wasn’t vaccinated; everybody on my team knew I wasn’t vaccinated,” Rodgers said.

His former head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that in the doc: “We knew the status of everybody.”

Although Rodgers went on to win the NFL MVP award in 2021, he admitted some regrets.

“You obviously wish at times things could be easier in various aspects. Not testing positive for COVID, not answering a question better,” Rodgers said. “Having my reputation take a shot the whole 2021 season, that was definitely heartbreaking for sure.”

Religion partly to blame for change in family dynamics

After Rodgers won the Super Bowl in 2011, he embarked on a different spiritual journey.

“I grew up in a very white dogmatic church that just didn’t really serve me … even talking to my parents it was very black or white, like somebody has to be wrong, somebody has to be right. I just slowly uncoupled from that in high school,” Rodgers said, noting “it was cool” to encounter different opinions in college at UC Berkeley.

In 2011, Rodgers started working with spiritual leader Rob Bell. He began looking into other religions and studying plant medicines. However, Rodgers found resistance to “what would be considered an alternative lifestyle.”

“I started to stand up to institutions of my youth. That was everything from organized religion to my parents, dogma, ideology,” he explained. “That definitely changed the dynamics of my family because I was just questioning all of it.”

Elsewhere in the documentary, Rodgers talked about how “there wasn’t space for emotion” growing up as he said he saw his father cry once when his grandfather died. “I definitely had some stunted emotional intelligence,” he said.

However, Rodgers said he has “love and respect and gratitude for how I was raised because it wouldn’t have turned me into who I am today.”

When asked if there’s hope for reconciliation with his family, Rodgers said, “Of course.”

“I don’t wish any ill will on them at all,” he said. “We’re just different steps on the timeline of our own journeys.”

Aaron Rodgers: Enigma is now streaming on Netflix.

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