Aaron Rodgers has actively shared his perspectives on various contentious issues during interviews and appearances on The Pat McAfee Show. While this openness may dispel some ambiguity surrounding his views, it doesn’t necessarily offer a complete understanding of him.
But perhaps Ian O’Connor’s upcoming biography of the New York Jets quarterback will offer more of a look underneath the hood. The New York Times best-selling author has revealed that Rodgers is the subject of his upcoming book, but details about the biography haven’t been released until Wednesday.
I was asked why I'm pulling for a #Jets #Packers Super Bowl. Here's why: My upcoming biography of Aaron Rodgers. I saw him recently & he looks pretty jacked in the upper body. He confirmed he got bigger. Looks ready for a fight. Pre-order: https://t.co/XXJvKUPjVn pic.twitter.com/AcSgJCFXrz
— Ian O'Connor (@Ian_OConnor) February 28, 2024
Here’s the blurb from Amazon:
Aaron Rodgers is regarded by some as the most talented player to ever hold the most important job in American team sports—quarterback. He also stands among the most mysterious and polarizing figures in the modern-day national pastime that is pro football.
From his controversial Covid stance to his methods of spiritual awakening to his estrangement from his family to his high-profile romances to his devastating Achilles injury a mere four plays into his New York Jets career, Rodgers has long dominated the NFL’s news cycle.
At thirty-nine, in search of a challenge that would rejuvenate him, Rodgers divorced the iconic Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi fame for the Jets, who haven’t appeared in a Super Bowl since Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. The trade made Rodgers the biggest story in the biggest league in the biggest market. By far.
That story only got bigger when Rodgers shockingly went down on the night of 9/11, in front of a packed house that roared for him when he took the field carrying an American flag, and in front of the biggest Monday Night Football audience in ESPN history—peaking at more than 25 million viewers.
As Rodgers launches his comeback and his bid to lead the Jets to a championship, acclaimed sports biographer Ian O’Connor uses hundreds of original interviews to pull back the curtain and answer the most penetrating questions about perhaps the country’s most famous and most enigmatic athlete. Just like he did in his previous works on Bill Belichick, Mike Krzyzewski, Derek Jeter, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, O’Connor reveals all sides of an all-time great and delivers a portrait of a complex man and four-time NFL MVP that will forever shape the way football fans view him.
O’Connor, who was responsible for providing a comprehensive profile of Rodgers, a figure generating significant public debate within the sports world, recently appeared on The Volume’s The Colin Cowherd Podcast to discuss his upcoming book and offer a fresh perspective on Rodgers.
“He certainly pushes back on an awful lot of fronts,” O’Connor told Cowherd. “I think growing up in a very strict, religious household is certainly part of it…When you grow up in a household like that, I think maybe naturally later on, he goes to Cal (Berkeley), this liberal, global institution with people from all over the world. He’s experiencing these different cultures and backgrounds and ethnicities and races. He grew up in a town that was overwhelmingly white. You start to see it at Cal…and that leads to another pushback.
“I think that’s a reasonable interpretation of his life and where he is right now. The one thing about him that I admire, even though I don’t agree with everything he says, is he’s pretty fearless; he’s not afraid to confront opposition and to say unpopular things and deal with the consequences of those things. I think that’s an admirable trait. I don’t think he’s doing it for that reason — just to push back. I do think he believes in what he says. But I think it’s a good read on the journey of Aaron Rodgers.”
In explaining the title to Cowherd, O’Connor said that the idea was to bring life to the mystery of who Aaron Rodgers is.
O’Connor’s book is available for pre-order and will be out on Aug. 13. 2024.
[Ian O’Connor on Twitter/X, The Colin Cowherd Podcast]
