Recently, someone close to Aaron Rodgers told him, ‘You can’t write the story of your life, but you can write your character.’ The Packers quarterback, once fiercely protective of his private life, is now learning to let go of things he cannot control. So far, the change in attitude seems to be liberating for him.
GREEN BAY – There was something different about Aaron Rodgers on Thursday afternoon.
Now, the Green Bay Packers quarterback didn’t burst into song, belting out “Let It Go,” Idina Menzel’s Oscar-winning song from the hit Disney film Frozen or anything.
But he might as well have.
Sitting in the cramped equipment office in the recesses of Lambeau Field, Rodgers had just finished the Packers’ final organized team activity practice of the spring. As he leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head, wearing a black t-shirt from Whole Body Fitness, his gym back home in Chico, Calif. – and one of the few shirts he has in his laundry rotation these days, it turns out – he was totally at ease.
As he sat at one end of a cluttered table with ESPN’s coverage of the U.S. Open playing in the background – muted, but still catching his attention from time to time – he smiled often as he talked about his evolution as a person, about how enduring the first major injury of his professional football career and then turning 30 last December had altered his perspective on things.
He sounded downright liberated.
“Someone real close to me said, ‘You can’t write the story of your life, but you can write your character,’” Rodgers explained. “And that, I thought, was really interesting. It has a lot to do with the fact that you can’t control everything. But you can control the way you respond to it and control the things you do, the decisions you make, and that’s definitely stuck with me.”
That was much was evident late last week, when photographs of Rodgers with his new girlfriend, actress Olivia Munn, began circulating around the Internet (including one oft-discussed photo of him kissing her.) It was the kind of thing that Rodgers, who has always tried hard to keep his private life private, would have been less than thrilled about in the past.
But on Thursday, he simply smiled. While he hasn’t lost his competitive edge or the world-famous chip on his shoulder – try asking him whether last year’s collarbone injury might alter his style of play, and you find that out immediately – he is clearly in a happy place, focused on expanding his legacy while not fretting about everything that may or may not affect it.
During a half-hour sit-down with ESPNWisconsin, Rodgers' discussion ran the gamut of topics. Here is an edited version of that conversation.
ESPNWisconsin: So, I’m curious. Do you have a bunch of those purple NYU Law Deans’ Cup t-shirts, or do you just do laundry that frequently? Because I saw you wearing it on Tuesday at your locker after the OTA practice, and I could’ve sworn I saw some pictures of you on the Internet wearing the same shirt over the weekend, too …
Rodgers: Yeah, it was one of my only clean shirts from the weekend when I was out West. I actually just got that shirt recently from a buddy of mine when I was at a wedding out in Portland. It’s actually his jump shot [silhouetted on the t-shirt]. Joey Kaempf, I think I’ve talked about him before. His dad was Big Joe Kaempf, who taught me the value of visualization [as a coach in the Raleigh Hills Little League]. And yes, I was wearing that on-set at The Newsroom and at my locker.
ESPNWisconsin: Those photos, and the attention/scrutiny that came after it, would seem to be something that would really bother you. Did it bother you?
Rodgers: No. For one, I’m real happy in my relationship. And I understand what comes with it. And two, the last couple years I’ve learned a lot about perspective and what’s important. And, that you cannot, when you’ve had success individually and collectively as a team and you are highlighted for the things you’ve done on the field and off the field, you cannot hide from the spotlight. You have to learn to embrace it.
I think it’s a process for me. I think it really took a while for me – and you still work through it – to get to a comfort level with that. But finally, you say, ‘You know what? It comes with the territory.’ It’s not what I signed up for. I signed up to play football, because I love it, and have as long as I can remember – watching the Niners on TV as a kid with my family to watching my favorite players and following them in high school and college and becoming a professional. This is what I always wanted to do. You don’t realize what all comes with it at times, but I think on some level, you have to embrace that. And the older you get, you focus on the things that are most important, and you learn to deal with or embrace the things that are more difficult.
ESPNWisconsin: So what prompted that change? Because you’ve always been fiercely protective of your private life in the past.
Rodgers: I think I am still protective of that. But there’s always going to be attention or scrutiny, and you can either understand it comes with the territory and embrace it, or you can lock yourself away. And I just can’t do that. I need to be living my life. And I’m going to continue living my life and enjoy my public life and enjoy my relationships and not worry too much about that other stuff because it’s like in football – there’s some things you just cannot control, and that’s one of them.
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ESPNWisconsin: In light of the injury, do you have to alter at all …
Rodgers: No.
ESPNWisconsin: … how you prepare or …
Rodgers: No.
ESPNWisconsin: … how you play?
Rodgers: No.
ESPNWisconsin: Because …
Rodgers: I’m not changing the way I play. I’m going to keep playing the same way. I’ve got to be instinctual, I’ve got to rely on my quick reactions, and I’ve got to play the way I’ve always played. At some point, if we’re talking in 10 years and I’m still trying to give this a go, I probably won’t be exactly the same player. But I’d like to think that as long as I have my legs, I’m going to play the exact same way because that’s what gives me those little advantages I can take and make plays with.
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