Aaron Rodgers Won't Be Going Into the Broadcast Booth After He Retires

Aaron Rodgers was profiled in a fantastic piece by Mina Kimes that will appear in ESPN The Magazine and was released online today. You might see some references to Colin Kaepernick in headlines deriving from this same piece, where Rodgers said, “I think he should be on a roster right now. I think because of his protests, he’s not.”

That, of course, was one small part of the larger piece. More compelling were the views it painted of Rodgers after his Super Bowl win, and how thoughtful he is. We’ve seen Tony Romo (and Jay Cutler, for a brief stretch) move to the broadcast booth this offseason, Peyton Manning is ever-present in network wish lists, and we will probably see several of the current batch of star quarterbacks end up there over the next decade. It’s a tried-and-true formula going back to guys like John Brodie and Don Meredith (and less memorably, Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr) moving into the booth.

Don’t expect Aaron Rodgers to be part of that path.

"As we discuss his various enthusiasms, it dawns on me that he hasn’t brought up football, so I ask him whether he’ll be done with sports when he retires. “Sports will always be a part of my life, but I don’t have a desire to coach them or broadcast,” he says. Throughout our conversation, Rodgers mentions several times that he cherishes his work on the field. He has no plans to leave the game any time soon. But the time he’s spent searching for meaning outside football has, paradoxically, made him cherish it more, he says. “Because I’m not obsessing over a ball.”"

The piece also delves into Rodgers’ views on religion and a variety of other interesting comments. Check it out.