Before he outed himself as an anti-vaxxer and an anti-Semite, Kyrie Irving revealed to the masses that he believed the world is flat. Then, with a very messy bit of the word salad he so commonly serves up, the 30-year-old revealed that he was just trolling.
“It became like, because I think different, does that knock my intellectual capacity or the fact that I can think different things than you?” he said. “That was the intent behind it. Do your own research, don’t come to me and ask me. At the end of the day, you’re going to feel and believe the way you want to feel. But don’t knock my life over that. When I do something, I know my intent. And it proved what I thought it would.”
Always the smartest guy in the room during a career that has brought him from Cleveland to Boston to Brooklyn and now Dallas, Irving is very reminiscent of another controversial athlete who is as talented as he is polarizing: Aaron Rodgers.
Why Is Aaron Rodgers Still Talking About MVPs Instead of Super Bowls?
The 39-year-old and the Packers finished 8-9 and out of the playoffsAlso a big-time anti-vaxxer, Rodgers has stirred the pot over the past year by discussing his use of ayahuasca and his support of a therapy called Panchakarma that involves forced vomiting, nasal clearance and bloodletting. (He’s also, allegedly, a Y2K conspiracy guy). And yesterday, on the heels of speaking at an astrology workshop to share how he “has fallen in love with his fate and uses it to have confidence without validation or approval,” Rodgers announced that he’d be deciding his NFL future with the Green Bay Packers by embarking on a four-day/four-night “darkness retreat” after the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“I’ve got a pretty cool opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation. And then after that I feel like I’ll be a lot closer to a final, final decision,” Rodgers said. “It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts. It stimulates DMT, so there can be some hallucinations in there but it’s just kind of sitting in silence, which most of us never do. We rarely even turn our phones off or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Rodgers made his announcement about the retreat, which will take supposedly take place inside a “little house” and involve having meals delivered through a slot, during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show while he was wearing a shirt honoring Nicolas Cage, a guy he imitated during training camp in an effort to be funny. And that’s what the darkness retreat is too — a joke.
Whether or not Rodgers actually shutters himself in an unilluminated house for four days and subsists on food delivered to him through a slot, the only reason he shed light on his idea of undertaking a vision quest in the dark is so people would talk about it and, therefore, him. Dumb as some of the stuff that Rodgers say is, it’s all calculated and he 100% wanted the phrase “darkness retreat” trending in the lead-up to Super Bowl LVII. Why? It’s the only way Rodgers can be part of Super Bowl week because he clearly can’t figure out how to get himself or his team back to the game.
As for his future, Rodgers probably already has his mind made up and we’d wager it involves a deal with the devil in Sin City. The oddsmakers at DraftKings agree and have the Las Vegas Raiders installed as -390 favorites to be the team Rodgers takes his first snap for in the 2023 regular season, followed by the Packers (+300), Jets (+600), Buccaneers (+1500) and Patriots, 49ers, Commanders and Titans (all +2000).
If that comes to fruition, ex-Packer and current Raider Davante Adams called it, no darkness retreat required.
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