Aaron Rodgers' possible run for vice president is the exit strategy he desperately needs
To understand why someone with as much competitive fire and elite athletic ability as Aaron Rodgers would entertain the idea of giving up one of the most coveted jobs in pro sports to join an independent presidential bid led by a conspiracy-spreading vaccine skeptic like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you have to think like Aaron Rodgers does.
Admittedly, this is not the most fun exercise.
But let’s say you’re able to fight through the gauntlet of half-baked Joe Rogan rants and misunderstood scientific studies that encase Rodgers’ brain and make it into the part of the quarterback’s mind where some logic and reasoning likely remains. You’d see why a call from RFK Jr. to be his running mate may have sounded like a godsend to the four-time NFL MVP. It’s the exit strategy he’s needed ever since backing himself into the corner of having to prove he’s both a medical genius and “built different,” as the kids say.
A quick review of the facts not even Rodgers could refute: He is now 40 years old. His New York Jets team is a complete mess despite Rodgers’ much ballyhooed leadership in the locker room. He spent the past year trying to convince any and everyone that he was capable of making one of the fastest recoveries from a torn Achilles in pro sports history, and when it didn’t happen, Rodgers tried and failed to save face by explaining he was only coming back if the Jets were still in the playoff hunt. As a professional football player, the season was an abject failure.
In the meantime, Rodgers spent his Tuesdays going on the friendly airwaves of ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show where he attempted to defame Jimmy Kimmel, spouted more conspiracy theories and claimed anyone who disagreed with him was trying to cancel or silence him.
We know Rodgers loves to hear his own voice. We know he craves the spotlight. We know his career is coming to an end. And he knows this all more than we do.
Nothing would be more damaging to Rodgers’ brand than humiliating himself on the field after twice as much rehab time as he claimed he needed. It would be the ultimate embarrassment, tainting all the “medical advice” he’s handed out. Everything he’s built himself up as over the last four years would fall apart in an instant if it turns out Rodgers can no longer play in the NFL because of his own missteps.
The way out of this game is to simply change the sport. Literally and figuratively.
The endgame here is not for Rodgers to continue winning championships. It’s to stay relevant for as long as possible. If he can do that in the NFL, he probably will. The perk of being QB1 for the New York Jets is getting the back-page treatment every single day in the biggest media market in the country. If he can no longer play, he must figure out a new way to keep everyone paying attention to him — especially after Jeopardy! passed on him to permanently replace Alex Trebek.
Is it really all that hard to imagine Rodgers claiming he will forgo the rest of his NFL days for the supposed good of the country?
Joining a failed but noisy presidential bid would keep him in the spotlight for at least another decade. He could continue to go on friendly news shows and bloviate about whatever he wants with zero pushback, then claim he’s being canceled because no respectable outlet will let him do the same on their platform.
This is the decision Rodgers is weighing now. This is the part of his brain where you can really understand why he’d even let RFK Jr. float his name. The quarterback who can’t go more than a month without trying to overshadow every other news cycle in sports just hijacked the opening days of NFL free agency, after all.
Maybe Rodgers plays football again. Maybe he doesn’t. But for the first time, he no longer has to look at the latter option as a loss.
Either way, the grift goes on.