Netflix Gets Trippy With Aaron Rodgers
The new docuseries Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, dropping on Netflix Dec. 17, is unlikely to change one’s view on the polarizing future Hall of Fame quarterback, who’s now toiling away, at age 41, for the perpetually sadsack, 4-10 New York Jets. Behinds-the-scenes footage, capturing his grueling rehab from an Achilles injury that sidelined him last season, will impress his fans. A deep dive into the psychedelic-assisted spiritual journey he’s become known for will intrigue those less familiar with the unconventional aspects of the NFL star. His reflections on 2021, when Rodgers responded to a press conference question about his COVID-19 vaccination status with “yeah, I’ve been immunized”—it turns out he wasn’t vaxxed, got COVID, and missed a game later in the season—will disappoint critics. He puts the onus on the media’s failure to ask a follow-up clarification query, rather than coming clean.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The series doesn’t even address the Jimmy Kimmel controversy that exploded earlier this year: Rodgers falsely connected the late-night host to a list of Jeffrey Epstein associates, igniting a bitter feud. Enigma co-director Gotham Chopra says he did not want to feel beholden to the 2024 news cycle in the otherwise expansive and illuminating series. The doc, however, would have benefitted from addressing the Kimmel blowup, as it’s probably the freshest example of why Rodgers stands as one of the most divisive stars in sports. Even during an era when fans almost expect athletes to speak out on matters beyond the field of play, Rodgers’ decision to insert himself on scientific debates for which he has no formal training, flirt with conspiracies, and overall ability to exude arrogance, rankles more than any other.
Chopra, co-founder along with Tom Brady and Michael Strahan of the sports-media company Religion of Sports, can qualify as a certified Rodgers expert. He’s spent dozens of hours in the quarterback’s company over the past year and change, even accompanying Rodgers on a Costa Rican psychedelic retreat for the series. And for people just a little fatigued by all the Rodgers drama of the past several years, Chopra offers some welcome news: he predicts that Rodgers, once he decides to hang up his football cleats in the not too distant future—his football legacy more than secure—will disappear from public view. For a little while at least.
“There’ll probably be a lot more ayahuasca and darkness retreats and stuff like that,” says Chopra. “And he will continue on that journey.” Rodgers could even give entrepreneurship a try, and run his own Costa Rican ayahuasca outfit. “He’s enigmatic to the rest of us, because he’s sort of enigmatic to himself still,” says Chopra. “There’s a reason he’s a single guy and he doesn’t have kids. He’s a guy who’s still sort of like unpacking himself.” (Rodgers and actor Shailene Woodley announced their engagement in 2021 but called it off in 2022.)
Despite flirting with a VP run alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., before the one-time candidate dropped out of the presidential election in August, Rodgers seems unlikely to enter politics post-football. “The polarizing stuff is exhausting,” says Chopra. “I don’t think he necessarily enjoys it. He’s sort of gotten to the point where he doesn’t give a sh-t anymore, and he’s not going to hold back his opinions. But it’s not fun to have so many critics and haters. He’s not Donald Trump. He doesn’t get off on that sort of stuff.”
Enigma came about almost immediately after Rodgers tore his Achilles four snaps into the 2023 season, his first with the Jets. Rodgers told Brady that he started watching a movie featuring Kobe Bryant’s recovery from a 2013 Achilles injury: Brady told Rodgers that Chopra directed that film, Kobe Bryant’s Muse, and suggested that they meet up. A few days later, Rodgers and Chopra connected in California. Rodgers gave him exclusive access to his recovery, and sat for multiple interviews.
Chopra and co-director Liam Hughes spoke at length with Rodgers about several hot-button issues, like the vaccination controversy, and Rodgers’ infamous rift with his own family. “It wasn’t like I was super duper close with everybody in the family,” Rodgers says in the film. “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?” Rodgers’ younger brother, Jordan—with whom Rodgers says he was indeed close—was a contestant on The Bachelorette in 2016. Jordan revealed the family estrangement on the “bullsh-t show”—Aaron’s words—which upset the quarterback.
Rodgers says he saw his father, Ed, cry just once, when his grandfather passed away. “There wasn’t space for emotion,” Rodgers says. “So I definitely had some stunted emotional intelligence.” Chopra did not reach out to Rodgers’ family to participate in the documentary. “This is Aaron’s story, from Aaron’s point of view,” says Chopra. “I never felt an obligation of, ‘well, let’s go get his parents’ side of the story. I’m sure there is one. And I didn’t want to do something that was confrontational. Like, ‘oh, I went to talk to your parents, and they said blah, blah, blah. What do you say, Aaron, to that?’”
Ed Rodgers did not respond to a message from TIME left at his office in Chico, Calif., where he works as a chiropractor. Ed and Darla Rodgers, Aaron’s mother, did not reply to emails requesting comment. Rodgers’ parents did speak to author Ian O’Connor for his 2024 biography Out Of The Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. Religion has been placed at the center of the family divide: Rodgers’ spirituality has drifted away from the Christian orthodoxy on which he was raised.
“I think we’re tolerant people,” Ed Rodgers told O’Connor. “We’d be totally accepting for whatever he’s got going. I would love to turn that narrative the other way. We’re not rigid. We’re not hard-line, or whatever people have said in the news. We’re just people trying to follow God. We’re not divisive. That stuff that’s out there that I’ve read, it’s just not true. Our view on all that, on God, religion, was not part of the divisiveness that happened.”
Rodgers’ maternal grandmother, Barbara Pittman, said her grandson used to call her and her husband Chuck—Aaron’s grandfather—on the morning of high school, college, and pro games, to fill them in on the game plan. But 10 years into Rodgers’ pro career, according to O’Connor’s book, those calls stopped. He cut off communication with his grandparents too—though Barbara says Aaron did call and email her after Chuck died in 2016. “Words cannot express how I miss my Aaron,” Barbara wrote to O’Connor in 2023. “One never stops loving and if the words I hear in the Sermons I listen to come true, I will hold him once more . . . I love my Aaron and maybe some day we will understand what happened to make him want nothing to do with us.”
In Enigma, Rodgers leaves a door open for reconciliation. “Aaron’s got a lot of work to do on himself,” says Chopra. “I think he’ll get there. He understands the concept of forgiveness. But he’s not there yet.”
Rodgers also spoke to O’Connor for this book: in it, he expressed regret for his immunization remark, noting that if he could have done things over again, he would have been more up-front about his vaccination. “If there’s one thing I wish could have gone different, it’s that, because that’s the only thing [critics] could hit me with,” Rodgers said.
Enigma also highlights Rodgers’ fondness for ayahuasca, the plant-based psychedelic; this footage will surely grab attention and birth countless gifs. During his Costa Rican retreat, Rogers—wearing flip-flops, bags under his eyes, unshaven and smiling—gently taps a bongo. He smokes a pipe under a crescent moon. “Think about the reason why you’re here, the journey that you’re here, makes no sense,” Rodgers tells the retreat group. He holds hands in a circle.
Chopra did not partake in the ayahuasca consumption while filming, for both professional and personal reasons. “Aaron’s like, you, everybody should do this—when they are ready for it,” says Chopra.
He’s not there yet. But if he ever is, Chopra knows a guy.