Aaron Rodgers “may roll away from bed and create a information cycle. He’s unbelievable. He’s a content material machine”. It’s true and it’s why the bestselling sportswriter Ian O’Connor is speaking to the Guardian from his dwelling within the New York space, the place Rodgers, a Inexperienced Bay Packers nice, now performs quarterback for the Jets. O’Connor’s new e book, Out of the Darkness, tells Rodgers’ story from childhood in California by way of faculty stardom at Berkeley to Tremendous Bowl glory and on to one thing past fame – a type of infamy, even.
Rodgers, O’Connor says, “was not this polarizing determine till actually about three years in the past when Covid hit and he was in the midst of a press convention in August ’21, and when he was requested if he was vaccinated, he mentioned, ‘Yeah, I’ve been immunized.’ Up till that time, he was not a villain in any respect.
“He was thought-about a socially conscious athlete. He had spoken up on behalf of Colin Kaepernick and his proper to protest inequities in American society. He had supported the athletes’ proper to kneel through the nationwide anthem. Proper after the terrorist assaults in Paris [in 2015], a fan yelled out an anti-Muslim slur, and he rebuked that fan … he was not this polarizing determine. Folks regarded as much as him.
“After which unexpectedly, with these phrases, ‘Yeah, I’ve been immunized’, that modified his life. A number of months later, he assessments constructive [for Covid], we discover out he’s unvaccinated. And that simply modified all the things about his his public picture.
“And since then, we’ve had the conspiracy theories … and now he’s thought-about a villain. And it’s simply fascinating to me: what’s occurred to his life?”
In some ways, that life occurs on a better aircraft. Figuratively, it’s the world of the tremendous wealthy, of luxurious houses and relationships with well-known actors, Olivia Munn and Shailene Woodley amongst them. Intellectually, it’s the world of podcast rants and spats with Jimmy Kimmel. Chemically, it’s the world of ayahuasca journeys and sensory deprivation remedy that helped encourage O’Connor’s title.
In some ways the reply to any query about what occurred to Rodgers is, merely, “fame”. Aaron Rodgers proved so good at his recreation – to O’Connor, “probably the most correct thrower of the soccer I’ve ever seen”, a top-five quarterback of the fashionable age behind Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Montana and Peyton Manning – that almost all ties to normality had been merely reduce.
O’Connor’s e book isn’t completely unauthorized. He spoke to Rodgers’ estranged household and to Rodgers himself.
He “had entry to him for 2 hours in February and that was it. He was not going to speak to me once more. I attempted to re-engage with him. It didn’t work. It was after that, that he did a few podcasts the place he went on and on about conspiracy theories that he embraced.”
To O’Connor, Rodgers’ curiosity in conspiracy theories isn’t solely a product of fame. It was additionally a part of his conservative Christian upbringing, “again when he was in highschool, being fascinated with the JFK assassination. One in all his pals informed me that rising up, ‘We believed in magic and miracles.’ And if you consider in magic and miracles, you consider in the potential for all the things, together with conspiracies.”
Rodgers was fascinated by Operation Northwoods – which truly occurred. As O’Connor explains it, “the joint chiefs of employees within the Nineteen Sixties got here up with a plan when [John F] Kennedy was president to stage assaults on American navy and civilian targets and blame them on Cuba, to start out a conflict with [Fidel] Castro. That was an actual evil plot … and Kennedy nixed it, fortunately. However now, Aaron mainly sees an Operation Northwoods behind any authorities disaster.”
Therefore the Covid controversy, during which Rodgers’ mistrust of vaccines prompted him to at greatest mislead about his personal vaccination standing, a transfer the quarterback says he now regrets.
He informed O’Connor: “If there’s one factor I want may have gone totally different, it’s that, as a result of that’s the one factor [critics] may hit me with.“
On the time, maybe. Rodgers has since been hit with far more. Earlier this yr, amid stories that the impartial presidential candidate (and vaccine conspiracy theorist) Robert F Kennedy Jr was contemplating Rodgers as his working mate, CNN launched a bombshell report. Rodgers, it mentioned, “shared deranged conspiracy theories concerning the 2012 Sandy Hook faculty capturing not being actual”.
At Sandy Hook, Connecticut, on 14 December 2012, 20 younger kids and 6 adults had been killed.
O’Connor says: “I’m certain that story would by no means have been printed had RFK Jr not disclosed that he was contemplating Aaron … I’ve by no means seen an outlet maintain a narrative 11 years – this got here from a non-public dialog at a celebration in 2013.
“Aaron was a big public determine then. All proper, he was solely within the sporting area. However he had gained a Tremendous Bowl and was the perfect participant within the NFL. If he mentioned that then, why wasn’t it printed? I’m not saying he didn’t say it, as a result of when he launched a press release, he didn’t deny saying it. So I’m definitely not going to disclaim it for him. I feel if you happen to actually, really maintain that perception that Sandy Hook was staged or it was a hoax, that’s unforgivable. I’m a father however I don’t suppose it’s a must to be a mother or father to really feel the identical method. That’s an unforgivable place to have. That’s that’s not your backyard selection conspiracy idea.
“So I’ll take him at his phrase that he’s by no means had that perception. However did he say it? He didn’t deny saying it again then, at a celebration on the Kentucky Derby. If he mentioned it, I hope it was only a mistake. Perhaps it was some type of joke. I don’t know how one can joke about that. However I actually, actually hope he by no means had that perception.”
O’Connor suspects the Kennedy marketing campaign planted the entire story of Rodgers as a attainable working mate, looking for “free publicity”, as a result of “there was by no means any likelihood in hell Aaron Rodgers was going to say sure”.
The most effective of our sports activities journalism from the previous seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s motion
Privateness Discover: Newsletters could include data about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by exterior events. For extra data see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.
after e-newsletter promotion
“Kennedy has no likelihood of successful, so successfully, Aaron could be selecting unemployment over persevering with his NFL profession. In order that was by no means occurring.”
Rodgers is 40 however his profession continues. He had 18 seasons with the Packers, Tremendous Bowl XLV the excessive level, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Dallas. On the web page, O’Connor tells how Rodgers got here to oust Brett Favre, a Packers nice; how he steered the Packers to their Tremendous Bowl win and loads of close to misses; and the way he, like Favre, got here to go away Wisconsin for New York and the Jets.
O’Connor determined to put in writing about Rodgers in 2023, when “he had simply gotten traded into my yard … and I assumed he was most likely probably the most distinguished American male athlete who had not had a defining e book written about him. And he was seemingly probably the most polarizing athlete in American sports activities.”
Then got here “the night time he acquired damage”. Final 11 September, at MetLife Stadium, the Jets’ star signing led his males in opposition to the Buffalo Payments. Greater than 82,000 followers had been there, tens of millions extra watched on TV. After simply 4 snaps, Rodgers was sacked. Achilles torn, helped from the sector, he didn’t play once more all yr. As Jets followers absorbed the blow, so did O’Connor.
“Truthfully, and I’ve been masking sports activities on this nation for about 37 years, that was probably the most heartsick I’ve ever been watching a recreation. It had nothing to do with my e book. I simply felt horrible for him and the followers as a result of after 4 snaps, to have that ripped away, on opening night time? It was simply an terrible feeling.”
There’s grim humor in it – as O’Connor says, the Jets are “actually a Charlie Brown franchise, the place all the things goes mistaken, and so what the Jets ended up getting with Aaron Rodgers for his first yr was all the draw back of using him and not one of the upside. The draw back is the off-field controversies, a lot of them self-generated. And the upside … is simply how nice of a soccer participant he’s.
“So I’m hoping this yr that for the fan base, selfishly for my e book, and actually for him, that they lastly get the upside. As a result of that was a depressing 2023 for everybody.”
Requested why a quarterback as gifted as Rodgers has gained only one Tremendous Bowl, O’Connor cites components out of Rodgers’ management, most tellingly a scarcity of help. Amongst different star quarterbacks, Tom Brady had Invoice Bellichick as head coach for 20 years at New England – and gained six Tremendous Bowls with the workforce.
Brady’s subsequent Tremendous Bowl win with Tampa Bay argues for his personal skills however he’s now retired. Rodgers performs on. To O’Connor, “Although generally individuals confuse victory with advantage, let’s face it, successful cures plenty of ills, on and off the sector. If he may win a championship earlier than he retires, with the New York Jets of all groups, I do suppose that can restore plenty of harm [from] the off-field controversies he mainly began. However I do suppose he may reverse this by successful a Tremendous Bowl with the Jets.”
