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A newly-released unauthorized biography of Aaron Rodgers has been revealing all sorts of interesting things about the New York Jets quarterback.
The biography, Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers, was officially put on sale to the public on Tuesday.
In it, never-before-heard-stories such as what irritated Aaron Rodgers the most about his brother Jordan being on The Bachelorette, who got him into ayahuasca, and how former girlfriend Olivia Munn drove a wedge between Aaron and his family, have been revealed.
Another topic related to Aaron Rodgers that has festered for years, but never really been addressed has to do with the rumors that were swirling during the first part of his NFL career that he was gay.
It was in late 2013, before he very publicly dated Olivia Munn, Danica Patrick and Shailene Woodley, that Rodgers decided to address the rumors about his sexuality with ESPN Milwaukee radio host Jason Wilde.
“Yeah, I’m just going to say, I’m not gay. I really, really like women. That’s all I can say about that,” Rodgers told Wilde. “There’s always going to be silly stuff out there in the media, and you can’t worry too much about [it], and I don’t. … I think there should be, professional is professional, and personal is personal. And that’s just how I’m going to keep it.”
Now, in Ian O’Connor’s biography on Aaron Rodgers, the former Packers quarterback revealed why he decided to address those rumors and how he feels about his response to them today.
“I think I was upset at the framing [of the rumor] because it was meant to shame the idea of being gay, and I have so many friends that are gay in the community,” the New York Post reports Rodgers told O’Connor.
“And right before that, [Wilde] and I actually have talked about this multiple times, and I said, ‘I want to go after them, the people saying this.’ Not in relation to me, because I could give a s— what they thought about me, but that they’re using this to shame, like it’s a bad thing to be gay. Like it’s a negative. That’s what I wanted to go after. And [Wilde] said, ‘You should just let it go and just say no.’
“I wish I had done the former because that’s how I really felt. I’m like, say anything you want about me, but do you understand these people are using this to shame the idea of being gay? That’s just disrespectful to all my friends who are in the community who don’t believe that it’s a choice.
“They were making it seem like you’re shaming people for being gay, when a lot of them, if you ask them, they didn’t ask for this life. ‘This is who I am.’ So, I wished I would have handled it that way, and I don’t blame Jason. We’ve talked it out.”