RODGERS - NFL MVP 2020 season (& other prior seasons) Career Super Bowl wins: one Packers made playoffs most of the time with Rodgers as QB. First round playoff record: 7 wins 3 losses Winning 70% of career first round playoff games is considered really good. Rodgers is stuck in Green Bay, and strongly disagrees with management about various issues. He probably wants to be traded (hopefully to Broncos).
Many people have heard that Rodgers doesn't speak to many family members. It's an estranged situation. The reason seems to essentially be religion. The 2 sides are not on speaking terms.
Rodgers was raised in a devout Christian home. They were strict and serious about the religion. For Aaron, weekly church meetings were "incredibly lacking in meaning." For many friends growing up, church was something where "you just had to go" even if you didn't like it or benefit.
Rodgers questioned Christianity. “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell,” he said. “What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?”
Aaron enjoyed questioning things, and learning about a variety of belief systems and lifestyles. He was impressed with volunteer groups (sometimes associated with religion) who actually went around to places and helped out poor and sick people who really needed help.
As Rodgers expressed honest opinions about most forms of organized religion, his family was fuming. They essentially wanted him to keep quiet about his beliefs and disbeliefs, and they wanted him to never say a negative thing about Christianity or church meetings. They wanted to muzzle him, but he's a smart, famous, wealthy sports star.
Hyper-religious people often have a real hard time when their religion is criticized (applies to Mormons, many types of Christians, Scientology, and many things around the globe).
Many of the religious conveniently claim that giving an opinion different from theirs, or citing an experience in contrast to their firmly held religious beliefs, is an attack. The word "respect" is instantly wielded as a cheap ploy to allow them to continue being the victim. And the religious are ALWAYS the victims. Just ask them.
When they ask you to respect them that is not asking to agree to disagree, that is really just asking you to shut the fudge up.
Sadly, the same principles operate among certain people across the entire political spectrum.
People are allowed not to agree with other people. It doesn't mean they're stupid, mad, bad or even ill-informed. Different opinions based on the same data are allowed in democracies.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2021 02:52PM by Soft Machine.
I've been curious about his family estrangement. He's also estranged from his brother Jordan, who has been associated with The Bachelor franchise TV show (his fiancee JoJo is a former Bachelorette, and an influencer with a sizable reach. She picked Jordan on her season, and they've had a rather long engagement.) Both Jordan and JoJo rehab and flip homes for a living. I think that both of them are regarded as being minor celebrities who haven't let their moment of fame get to them. They appear to have their heads screwed on straight.
I never saw Jordan as being hyper-religious, or all that tightly wound. So maybe I could see Aaron's estrangement from his parents, but Jordan? That doesn't make sense to me. I've suspected that there is more to this story than just religious differences.
It's certainly possible. The way Jordan has expressed it is that Aaron shuns them. But there could be a reason for that (i.e. not bending to the family's terms for engagement.)
Rodgers is a smart guy. He scored a 35 on the NFL's wonderlic test. Tom Brady 33. Peyton Manning 28. Average NFL player score is 20. The only perfect score of 50 was Colts punter Pat McInally (Harvard grad). Highest QB score is 48 by Ryan Fitzpatrick (Also Harvard), I too hope Aaron ends up in Denver for a while.