Staying put. Aaron Rodgers assured fans that he has no plans to leave the Green Bay Packers in the near future — or ever.
The 38-year-old quarterback replied, “Yes, definitely,” when asked by reporters on Tuesday, June 7, whether he plans to retire with the team he’s played for since 2005. The response came three months after Rodgers confirmed his intention to return to the Packers following weeks of speculation that the athlete was planning to retire after the 2021-22 football season.
“Hey everyone, just wanted to clear some things up,” the California native tweeted in March. “YES I will be playing with the @packers next year, however, reports about me signing a contract are inaccurate, as are the supposed terms of the contract I ‘signed’. I’m very excited to be back 💪🏼 #year18❤️.”
The former University of California, Berkeley student was seemingly referring to a report that he had signed a $200 million contract for four more years with the Wisconsin team. He ultimately signed a $150 million deal for three more years with the franchise.
Now, however, the former Jeopardy! guest host said he’s taking things one year at a time, despite the fact he agreed to play with the Packers for at least three.
“If you say I’m for sure playing two more, three years and then you have a magical season that ends with a championship and think that that might be the best way to ride off, I don’t want to commit to something,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “You say, ‘I’m only playing one more year,’ and you have a bitter taste in your mouth and still got the drive and the passion to play one or two more years, I just don’t want to get pigeonholed into it.”
Shortly before recommitting to the only NFL team he’s ever played for, Rodgers split from ex-fiancée Shailene Woodley after more than one year together. The football player and the Big Little Lies alum, 30, dated off and on for several more weeks after their initial February breakup, but three months later, an insider told Us Weekly that the duo had called it quits for the last time.
“Friends have been told it’s over for good,” the source explained in May, adding that the pair “just didn’t work out as a couple.”
Following the news of their initial split, Rodgers, who announced his engagement to Woodley in February 2021, apologized to his “loved ones” for how his controversial stance on the coronavirus vaccine affected them. The ESPY Award winner made headlines in 2021 for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 despite league regulations and subsequently contracting the illness.
“One thing that I am sad about and definitely apologetic is I didn’t realize in the midst of the COVID conversations how much my situation was affecting my loved ones and my people,” he said during a February episode of The Pat McAfee Show. “Understanding kind of the entire gravity of the situation I was thrust into and decided to speak on multiple times had an effect on a lot of people. To those people, I just say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
