Ian O'Connor: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers

Rogers, Geordie Nelson, touchdown, Green Bay. Approaching the two minute warning here in Arlington over the middle, caught, touchdown, Greg Jennings. Rogers looking left, comes to his right, Jennings, touchdown. This ball is incomplete but it was a fourth down pass and Green Bay will take over. The final snap of Super Bowl 45, the Green Bay Packers have won the Super Bowl. The Lombardi Trophy is coming home. And there you go, and that of course Joe Buck on the call.

Packers win the Super Bowl. The only one for Aaron Rodgers, 31-25. And that was a big win for him and you thought though more were coming, more haven't, but doesn't mean he hasn't had a spectacular career. He's one of the biggest, most controversial names in sports and that's one of the reasons why Ian O'Connor tackled the topic. Out of the Darkness, the name of the book, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers Comes to Light. Ian O'Connor, congratulations.

I'm through it. It's a fantastic, another fantastic book, a follow up to Belichick and the Derek Jeter book. What made you pick Aaron Rodgers? Well, Brian, I know you've written more bestsellers than I could count, so that means a lot coming from you. I was actually going to do a LeBron bio and then another LeBron book came out and I switched over to Aaron Rodgers because he got traded into our backyard here in New York and I thought he was a fascinating figure and compelling and mysterious and beyond that Vince Lombardi coached at my high school in New Jersey, so I've always had a Packer fascination and I decided that Rodgers was probably the most prominent American male athlete who hadn't had a defining bio written about him, so I wanted to take it on.

And it's so interesting, so many facets. If it was just a really great player on a historic team, small town America, title town, it's interesting. That would be good, but he's somebody that became a national prominence because he's took over for a legend. Brett Favre came into national prominence because he had national ads like State Farm and then of course he had high profile girlfriends from Olivia Munn to Danica Patrick. We saw that great looking guy doesn't hurt.

Winning a Super Bowl certainly helps, but there's something about Aaron Rodgers that people can't unwind. What is it about him? He's a contrarian, Brian. He's also a chameleon. He's a rebel with a cause. He's a rebel without a cause. He's very, very hard to pin down, but that attracted me to the subject.

I like figures like that and trying to figure them out and he was elusive. I'll say that and just like he is just like he is on the field, but at the end of the day his public image completely changed with COVID. His whole life changed and his stance and of course his four words, yeah I've been immunized when he wasn't vaccinated. I don't think he's recovered from that public relations hit and for the first time he admitted to me in the book that he should have just told his truth which I told him. I said if you told your truth which was you were allergic to an ingredient in Pfizer and Moderna and you were concerned about Johnson and Johnson side effects, if I were a columnist sitting in that room I was vax at the time, but I would have found that to be a reasonable position and I don't think I would have ripped you and I don't think you would have gotten half the criticism you got in November when the truth came out and then he basically agreed and said yeah I should have just told the truth that I didn't want to take the vaccine over health concerns and really he hasn't totally made up that ground Brian and recovered from that and it is unfortunate. A couple of things, in a way I don't think he cares because he created controversy at the time but now it looks like the more people step back from the mania there's a lot of smart people, powerful people like Joe Rogan on down like Novacek who took some heat and now people are saying that you know maybe we did overreact.

They told us the vaccine was gonna if you get it you're not going to get the virus and you did I mean Anthony Fauci got it again. So do you think that the more you push him judging by the profile you did on him the more he gets defiant? Yeah he has leaned in and he's dug in his heels ever since Covid whether it's conspiracy theories, the Jimmy Kimmel thing which is a whole other story but you're right and even with conspiracy theories I mean some of those usually end up being proven true. Certainly not all of them but yeah his stance the one thing I'll say about him Brian is he is a fearless public speaker and on a level I commend that because most people including myself are not and when he has a position and a belief he is not afraid of the consequences of defending that belief in the public arena.

He's proven that time and time again and I do I think I do this in the book I give him some credit for that because it's a rare trait. So you point out too that you know now he a lot of conservatives like him because he did that but also they didn't like him maybe technically when he was coming out for Kaepernick when Colin Kaepernick was taking a knee he was firmly in his corner right? Yeah and that's where he's a chameleon because before Covid he was considered a socially aware athlete who backed Kaepernick. He supported athletes their right to kneel even though he didn't do that. There was an anti-Muslim slur shouted from the crowd after the terrorist attack in Paris and he rebuked that fan and President Obama sent him a letter thanking him for doing that and then all of a sudden Covid happened and his image went the other way the liberal media that had really supported him turned on him and he fought back and here we are where we are with him and I'll say this and I think you grew up a Jets fan if he wins the Super Bowl with the Jets and victory shouldn't be confused with virtue but I think that a victory as we know in sports wipes away a lot of on-field and off-field perceived sins and mistakes so he can do that still he could change everything. I know and he's back but he did disappear and go to Egypt instead of the OTAs a lot of people are upset by that. A couple of things people should understand this even though he's smarter great looking very poised very diverse he seems to have everything you have to understand this guy overcame much more than almost any athlete that I read about that ends up being one of the best at anything I mean you should people should understand that at a high school he had zero options to play quarterback it was only because a junior college coach in his neighborhood just was indefatigable in recruiting him begging his parents to let him go saying he only needs his one year you know he would not have had a chance maybe at an NFL career let alone a college career and then because he was I guess a little small and not very you know tall then and I guess not very you know very muscular he goes there and he kills it in junior college and still nobody's interested in him it took a tight end to be recruited to California and he said by the way you should check out on the tape according to your book Ian on the tape he said he included some great passes from Aaron Rodgers his quarterback and then he says who is this guy then the coach came to see him in practice they have a full practice and he said can I take him now and if Cal doesn't recruit Aaron Rodgers Purdue had turned him down Illinois had turned him nobody was interested in Aaron Rodgers right that's right and I I'll say this Brian when I was sitting in his backyard in Malibu at his mansion on the Pacific Ocean beautiful place 30 million dollar home and I'm thinking to myself this guy is a self-made man because he was overlooked and undervalued at every turn in his football life and no one ever gives him credit for that either he created this on his own he had no help from anybody and so if he has a gigantic chip on his shoulder which he does there's a reason for that and it's amazing to think that his entire recruiting experience coming out of high school was a JUCO coach who lived about five or six houses away knocking on his door and convincing his mother that her son who got 1310 on the SATs now has to go to community college so yeah he comes from that place and that's definitely a part right now of who he is so Aaron Rodgers stars at Cal what 23 for 23 against USC Pete Carroll's USC juggernaut and everyone's seeing him and he thinks he's going to go number one overall or Alex Smith to the 49ers he always dreamed of being Joe Montana and playing for the Niners he thinks he's got a real shot at being number one so they send him they say come to New York and sit in the big green room we want to see the dramatics as you get drafted he drops to 23 and he becomes a national uh I don't think a joke but everyone starts going oh my god look at who's this Aaron Rodgers guy nobody's drafting him not only is he not number one he might drop out of the entire first round after he gets picked by the Packers Green Bay's furious because they want they have a quarterback listen to Aaron Rodgers being interviewed cut 39. A couple of weeks ago Aaron you were the clear cut number one what's changed over that time yeah I wish I could tell you uh I haven't changed anything I think it's just perception of me or or maybe needs the teams at the spots and uh I'm just you know I'm not too worried I'm excited about going to team that wants me and and uh making an impact right away so I mean that just when you think you're out of the woods and you you beat the naysayers that happens I know everybody wants to be a first-run draft pick but that was embarrassing correct oh sure it was humiliating and it was on national tv obviously that was the first NFL draft reality show it happened the same day that the very first video was uploaded on youtube so that was a fitting turn of events but and then he had to deal with Brett Farr of the legend who didn't want him there and he had to overcome that the fans didn't want Aaron Rodgers and he became a first ballot hall of famer through the singular force of his will really and again a lot of that gets discounted in the public discussion of who he is now but he created this career he's got a chance to win a super bowl in New York for a franchise that hasn't been there since January of 69 and he's worthy of that he deserves that kind of ending to a career where a lot of people think he's the most talented quarterback ever so hopefully he can pull that off here's Brett Favre talking about not mentoring Aaron Rodgers and doing the best to ice him out really cut 44 there are some that would say well you're you're the legend the face of the franchise it should be on you to be the one reaching out i think as a starter my job's hard enough to win ball games and be a leader you're not a babysitter and i'm not by no means talking about Aaron he's the starter now so the next quarterback comes in whether he's a first round pick or third round pick or a free agent but they like him nowhere does it say that you have to take that guy under your wing and teaching the ropes you don't have to do anything but win ball games for whoever it is you're the starting quarterback for whether or not you take a guy under your wing means really nothing now how did he how did obviously Brett Favre did that and he's a rock star there but and maybe arguably Aaron Rodgers is better but then how did Aaron Rodgers respond when Jordan Love was drafted in Green Bay oh he treated him a lot better than he got treated by Brett Favre that's for sure and i think Jordan Love has really appreciated that and Aaron understood what it felt like to be in that position so he was hell-bent on not doing the same thing to Jordan and Favre's relationship with Rodgers now is is better much better than it was when they were together as teammates because they both went through essentially being pushed out of Green Bay and the pain of that and how that felt they now both understand each other and their relationship is in a much better place here's the moment that the Jets will never forget cut 48 protection breaks down and time runs out down goes Rodgers in the sack for Leonard Floyd now Rodgers sits down he's coming out of the game he tore his achilles done three plays in and the Jets thought they were going to the Super Bowl they fell apart they end up seven and ten now he does incredible comeback you write about in your book about how he overcomes the achilles gets that thing redone with some cutting edge technology with great discipline on his part but the Jets are out of the playoffs he doesn't come back is he ready i think he is brian i think he's going to have a big year i think he's got one left in him i see the Jets looking at their schedule maybe 11 and 6 perhaps winning the division making a postseason run after last year that was such a miserable experience for the fans i was in the building when it happened i've never been more heartsick for an athlete and a fan base than i was that night i think the football gods owe that fan base fatalistic as it is and Aaron Rodgers won this year so i think they're going to have a pretty big year they're due for it they haven't been in the playoffs since 2010 so let's see how it plays out lastly you bring his family to his Jets debut they watch that injury they're not speaking do you see a break in that relationship and how important was it to speak to Rodgers when he gave in and allowed you to speak to him for this book oh it's very important he made it a better book he gave me two hours of fact checking that was essential i really appreciate that uh he hugged his father last summer at lake tahoe at the golf celebrity golf tournament first time he'd seen his dad or talked to him in nine years and they said they loved each other it was 30 seconds and that was it but it was emotional and both told me they want a relationship with each other if that happens i think the rest of the family will come together and fall into place and they said in your book you write your dad said no pre-mom and dad said no preconditions just pick up like it never happened yeah and you can't litigate those issues that separated them over these 10 years because then the reconciliation will never happen so i think everyone in on that side of the family wants it to happen without conditions it's now up to Aaron and his father to come together to start that process i'm going to talk to you on one nation this weekend saturday at nine but just real quick what is what did you think going in and what do you now know about Aaron Rodgers uh how do you feel about him differently if at all from when you started this project i didn't realize brian that his teammates almost universally really love him and have over the 20-year career and one prominent nfl official told me that he can't stand personally Aaron Rodgers but he said i have to admit i've never met an nfl player who does not like him and i think that part of his discussion or part of his career has been lost in the discussion about Aaron Rodgers in the public arena and no one does biographies like you do it is really great and it's and the fact that he read it and says i gotta i'm gonna talk to Ian O'Connor or talk to people that knew that you have dealt with and you got his respect that way says a lot uh the name of the book is out of the darkness the mystery of Aaron Rodgers Ian O'Connor thanks so much hey thank you my pleasure brian jason in the house the jason chafetz podcast dive deeper than the headlines in the party lines as i take on american life politics and entertainment subscribe now on foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts listen to the show ad free on fox news podcast plus on apple podcast amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts