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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff WriterDec 17, 2024, 08:56 AM ET
- Rich Cimini is a staff writer who covers the New York Jets and the NFL at ESPN. Rich has covered the Jets for over 30 years, joining ESPN in 2010. Rich also hosts the Flight Deck podcast. He previously was a beat writer for the New York Daily News and is a graduate of Syracuse University. You can follow him via Twitter @RichCimini.
In the new docuseries, “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma,” the New York Jets‘ quarterback takes viewers deep into his world.
Over the course of three one-hour episodes dropping Tuesday on Netflix, Rodgers comes across as a hypercompetitive athlete who struggled with fame after winning a Super Bowl in 2011, which led to an identity crisis that caused him to rebel from family and organized religion. He discovers his true self on a spiritual journey that includes psychedelics — or “plant medicine,” as he says.
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In the second episode, we see Rodgers last offseason on an ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica, smoking a giant pipe, downing a brownish liquid that looks like mud water, dancing, playing the bongos and describing the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly while appearing glassy-eyed and quite giddy (wink, wink).
Rodgers has talked about his interest in ayahuasca and how it has impacted his life and career, but it’s quite another thing to see him participating in an actual ceremony. You may not agree with his views or his approach to life, but it makes for a compelling watch.
“It’s the hardest medicine possible that I’ve tried,” he says during the documentary. “It’s a deeply intense spiritual journey.”
The docuseries tells his life story, weaving his 2023 Achilles injury and the grueling rehab into the narrative. From a football perspective, there are no bombshell revelations. The most intriguing storylines involve off-the-field stuff, most notably his infamous estrangement from his family. Rodgers rarely discusses his personal life, which makes this so intriguing.
Rodgers says he saw his father, Ed, cry only once, which he believes led to “some stunted emotional intelligence.” Rodgers also says he “grew up in a very white, dogmatic church, and that just didn’t really serve me. It was very rigid in structure.”
The rift reportedly began in 2014, a few years after Rodgers achieved superstar status with the Green Bay Packers. He says he was “hurt” because his family told him: “Your life is too big.”
“It wasn’t like I was super-duper close with everybody in the family,” he says. “In actuality, it goes back to stuff from high school that made me feel distant. Stuff from college, stuff post-college. And I was quiet about it. Because I thought the best way to do it, was just, don’t talk about it publicly. And what do they do?”
The “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma” docuseries touches on a number of topics surrounding the quarterback, including his rift with his family and interest in ayahuasca. Netflix
Rodgers blames his family for publicizing the rift when his younger brother, Jordan, appeared on “The Bachelorette” in 2016. The home visit to meet the family, a staple of the TV series, still irks him.
“They go on a bulls— show and leave two empty chairs,” Rodgers says. “They all agree that this was a good thing to do, to leave two empty chairs on a stupid dating show that my brother just went on to get famous?”
Rodgers says he never was invited and wouldn’t have attended anyway.
No one from the family is interviewed in the docuseries. For the record, Rodgers says he’s open to a reconciliation, but adds, “We’re on different steps of the timeline with our journeys.”
Rodgers is a self-proclaimed perfectionist who struggles with that. He says, “Something is wrong with me because I’m not perfect.” He grew up in Chico, California, dreaming of being a Super Bowl MVP. When he achieves that goal at 28, he wonders if there’s more to life than playing football, which triggers his spiritual journey.
The docuseries addresses his COVID-19 controversy in 2021, when he responded to a question about his vaccination status by saying, “Yeah, I’m immunized.” It blew up when he tested positive and missed a game, causing a fall from grace. “A witch hunt,” he calls it.
Rodgers discusses his football future, though he doesn’t provide any concrete clues on whether he plans to play in 2025.
“There’s football legacy and there’s character legacy,” he says in an interview conducted before the season. “Football legacy is cemented with the Hall of Fame. Character legacy is cemented every day and it’s way more important to me.
“It could be the last year,” he says. After a pause, he looks into the cameras and says, “Or it could not be.”
Enigma, indeed.
