The final season of football for Aaron Rodgers was preceded by a reunion with his estranged family. He spoke about it during a Saturday appearance on NFL Network.
“There’s been a lot of conversation about it outside of my own conversation for so many years,” Rodgers told Kyle Brandt. “You know, a big part of it was getting married and having those conversations with my wife that allowed me to kind of open up to the possibility of coming together. It’s been a couple-year process now, the conversations with them, but, you know, I’ve been very, very closed off about that part of my life, and I want to keep it that way. But there’s been a narrative that’s gone on for too long, that I wanted to kind of shut down.
“And it’s been really beautiful to reconnect with them. All of them. And I got to spend a week, a long weekend recently. Those pictures are from in Nashville. My parents, my brother, and his sweet wife, and their incredible two kids. I got to be an uncle. It’s just really — it’s really special. So a lot of my life has been full circle I think the last year. And that was part of it. I knew it was part of it. And I’m happy to be reunited, and that part of my life is a really beautiful addition, and I’ve got to give my wife a lot of credit for — not that she was pushing me, because she never was, but just the way that she loves and supports me, having her by my side during this process has been really special. And I missed those relationships. And there was reasons for it that don’t need to be talked about, but I’m thankful that that’s come all the way back around.”
Although Rodgers said he reconnected with “all of them,” he mentioned only one brother. It’s unclear whether Aaron and his brother, Jordan, have reconnected.
It was Jordan who brought the family issues to light during a 2016 stint on The Bachelorette. Two years later, Jordan chided Aaron for his donation to wildfire-relief efforts after (per Jordan) Aaron didn’t call their parents to check on them during the fires.
Although it’s good news when anyone finds a path back to the most important people in their lives, it’s not entirely clear whether Rodgers truly wanted to reunite with his parents and at least one brother, or whether he simply wanted to “shut down” a “narrative.” (Before anyone gets pissed at me for going there, those are the words he used.)
Ian O’Connor’s 2024 biography of Rodgers made abundantly clear his habit of cutting people close to him off by putting them on “the island.” It will be interesting to see whether Jordan, who apparently is still marooned like Gilligan, will have anything to say about the latest developments.