Originally planning to spend four days and four nights contemplating his NFL future on a “darkness retreat” in a 300-square-foot room with no natural light, Aaron Rodgers reportedly made it through two evenings at the facility before departing.
For better or worse, all that time in the dark apparently did not help the 39-year-old quarterback see the light as he has not decided whether or not he wants to retire or if he wants to stay with the Green Bay Packers if he continues to play football. That was a fairly predictable outcome to the excursion, given that it may have been a troll job all along, but hearing Rodgers discuss it is not any less grating. He did so during his first post-retreat interview on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast and it was, as usual, a bunch of word salad with just a touch of substance.
“All the answers are right inside me. I touched many of the feeling on both sides in the darkness. I’m thankful for that time,” Rodgers said, as transcribed by GoLongTD.com. “There’s a finality to the decision. I don’t make it lightly. I don’t want to drag anybody around. I’m answering questions about it because I got asked about it. I’m talking about it because it’s important to me. If you don’t like it and you think it’s drama, and you think I’m being a diva or whatever, then just tune it out. That’s fine. But this is my life. It’s important to me. I’ll make a decision soon enough and we’ll go down that road. I’ll be really excited about it.”
In other words, Rodgers wants to continue to play the waiting game before announcing whether he is going to come back and play football for the Packers on a contract that will pay him $60 million this season if he remains in Green Bay. It’s a fairly similar to how his unwelcomed mentor, Brett Favre, behaved during his final years with the Packers. And, just like Favre, Rodgers could definitely wind up with the Jets as New York needs a quarterback and Green Bay seems ready to move on and give Jordan Love, who will be entering his fourth NFL season, the keys to the offense.
“We’re excited about him. I think I’ve expressed to a lot of people that he needs to play,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said this week. “That’s the next step in his progression. He needs to play. Jordan’s done a great job working hard, so he’s doing everything we’re asking. We took him for a reason back in 2020. He’s been progressing nicely, and to see him kind of take the jump he did this past year was nice. Again, it’s much different than going out there week in, week out, taking on the challenges when teams are game planning for you.
It Appears Aaron Rodgers Is a Confirmed Y2K Conspiracy Guy
Rodgers said “there was a lot of weird sentiment around Y2K.” Did anyone (but him) believe it?Picked 26th overall in 2020, Love has played in only 10 games with one start in three seasons and has thrown three touchdowns and three interceptions. Sounds kind of like Rodgers, who appeared in only seven games, with no starts, and threw a touchdown and an interception while he was waiting for Favre to move on.
No matter what Rodgers saw, or didn’t, in the darkness, history seems destined to repeat itself and it is becoming increasingly likely he has played his last game for Green Bay. Whether he plays somewhere else remains unilluminated.
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