In a new Netflix documentary about Aaron Rodgers premiering Tuesday, the NFL star sheds more light on the infamous 2016. Bachelor the dinner scene that revealed for the first time the long-standing rift between him and his family.
Rodgers, 41, says in a new documentary, Aaron Rodgers: Enigmathat he was “never invited” to dinner at the Rodgers family home, when his brother Jordan Rodgers, then a contestant on JoJo Fletcher’s season Bachelorhe brought her home to meet his family.
The scene is mostly remembered for introducing viewers and NFL fans to the estranged relationship Rodgers has with his family, especially younger brother Jordan and older brother Luke.
The dinner scene included everyone in Rodgers’ family, except for him and his then-girlfriend Olivia Munn. Their absence from the family dinner was highlighted by the two empty chairs sitting at the table with the rest of the family: Jordan and his wife-to-be JoJo, Luke and his girlfriend, and the brother’s parents Ed and Darla Rodgers.
Aaron Rodgers’ Family: Inside His Ups and Downs with His Parents and Brothers
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (L), actor Brian Baumgartner (3rd L) and guests arrive at the 13th Annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational Gala at ARIA Resort & Casino at CityCenter on April 4, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller/Getty
Rodgers explains that he was never “super super close with everybody” in his family, though he says he was close with Jordan growing up before “the high school stuff made me feel distant, the college stuff, the post-college stuff .” “I kept quiet about it because I thought the best way to do it was not to talk about it publicly,” Rodgers continues. “And what did they do? They go to the bull show and leave two empty chairs. They all agreed, like, this was a good thing to do, to leave two empty chairs on the stupid dating show that made my brother famous—his words, not mine—that he ended up winning. But like, the dinner that was during [NFL] season, which I was never invited to go to, not that I would go.”
Rodgers laments throughout the documentary that he never wanted the off-field fame that came with his football career, appearing in high-profile television commercials for companies like State Farm and dating multiple celebrities, including Munn, fellow actress Shailene Woodley and NASCAR star Danica Patrick .
“There were a lot of times when I became really famous, when I heard from a lot of people, including family members, where it was like, ‘Your life is too big, we need you smaller, be smaller. Don’t talk about your life,’ and that always hurt me because it’s just like you don’t see me,” Rodgers says while discussing his family breakup. “This is not something I ever wanted or wanted, other than playing on Sundays.”
Shailene Woodley Says Aaron Rodgers Relationship Talk ‘Always Makes Me Cry’: ‘It Wasn’t Right’
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Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Rodgers.
Ilya S. Savenok/Getty; Santiago Felipe/Getty
The New York Jets star says fame “can definitely change the people around you, because it can be intoxicating.”
“So definitely the relationships changed after that — the friendships, the family,” Rodgers says, referring to his rising profile after winning the 2010 Super Bowl and his first NFL MVP award the following season.
Rodgers also credited his interest in “other religions and herbal medicine” as contributing factors to his family rift.
“You know, they’re living the best they can, it’s still caught up in organized religion, which is working out for them, that’s great,” Rodgers says. “So, as much as they may not like what they see, [I have] love, respect and gratitude for the way I was raised because it wouldn’t have made me who I am today.”
In the end, Rodgers says he still has hope for an end to the family feud with his brothers, which has seemed to occasionally heal and occasionally worsen over the years. “People ask me, like, is there any hope for reconciliation? I say: ‘Yes, of course, of course.’ I don’t want them to fail, to struggle, to have any arguments or problems. I wish them no ill will. It’s more like this: We are just different steps on the timeline of our own journeys.”
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Source: HIS Education