When people need time to think, they go to their safe place and think. When I get stressed, I go into my room, close the door, and listen to music. Recently, this idea of “needing space to think” has been taken to the extreme by Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. 

Aaron Rodgers, the homeless man of the NFL, signed to play with the Packers for the 2023 season for a jaw-dropping $59.465 million guaranteed in order to give the team its only reason for people to still watch. For this amount of money, the franchise thought it had secured the team’s star for another year, but this idea has hit the fan in recent weeks. Rodgers is now questioning this signing, and how he is going about it is absolutely ridiculous. 

To contemplate his commitment to Green Bay, he has secluded himself in an unannounced location in complete darkness for four days. That is ridiculous. Mental health is a real issue, and I understand how it is a big question to ask yourself when you are almost forty-years-old and are only used as the face of your franchise, but use your head here. For one, it does not take four days to decide if a few more weeks of competition and an overly generous paycheck are worth a few hits to the side. Secondly, if you have to question your contract that is only three years after already playing for eighteen and it never being an issue, you will most likely regret not playing like Tom Brady did after his retirement scares. If Rodgers was to retire and regret it, he would most likely receive less money from the Packers to come out of retirement and re-sign for one more year, like Brady did, and would prove that he could handle the extra time. 

Now, I can see how with health issues or age, you would not want to keep putting yourself through the process of the NFL lifestyle, but when he signed last year for three years, he thought he was completely capable of going longer, and even if it was for the $150 million he was offered over the time he is signed, he would not sign his name on the paper if he was not confident in himself. I also realize he dealt with a thumb injury and a rib injury this past season, but by the time the 2023 season comes around the corner, these ailments will not be issues anymore. I am more worried about his mental health over the physical, and so are many others. 

Aaron Rodgers has been very open over the years with his mental struggles, and I think it may be the one key factor holding him back from having his mind on the field. He has openly talked about his use of plant-based psychedelic drugs for the mental blocks he has been experiencing in the past year, but even with these issues, he has admitted they have not kept him off of the field. In fact, in an interview with People Magazine on August 3, 2022, it was recorded that these drugs have helped him perform the best he has in years. These drugs also helped him naturally find himself in a positive way and see what he is happiest doing. Due to these statements, I do not see a reason that he would have hopped off of the medication, and because of this, I see no excuse for this coming season. When you claim just a few months ago that you are in your best headspace and body appreciation at thirty-nine- years-old, you have no real excuse to lock yourself away somewhere in the dark to supposedly “find yourself.” 

In reality, my conclusion for why Aaron is pulling this stunt is simple: he wants attention that he can not get with the season being over and this keeps himself and the NFL relevant even after the Super Bowl. He had no major accomplishments this season, and after Tom Brady announced his second retirement and received a ton of traction for this, I genuinely question if this is a publicity stunt. He has called off an engagement in the past few years due to his dedication to football, and if your love for something goes deep enough to cause a void between you and the person you love, there has to be something either all of us are missing or that he is missing, which in this sense seems like his common sense. With all of the attention and coverage this hot topic has received though, I think it is safe to say that no matter what the outcome of his little camping trip is, neither side will come out on the positive side. 

Whether you are an Aaron Rodgers fan or not, this recent news may make you question what is going on behind the scenes in his life. No matter what is going on though, we have concrete evidence that most excuses he could make could be ruled out as an excuse for attention, and I am not buying a second of his stunt. If you are going to take the spotlight for something, at least make it something worth caring about, Aaron.