Aaron Rodgers Talks Packers Standoff, Ted Lasso, Jeopardy! & More with Rich Eisen | Full Interview

Intro he is the mvp reigning mvp of the national football league getting set to take on the lions on monday night football to wrap up week number two he is none other than aaron rodgers how are you aaron hey good thanks for having me on thanks for being on here how's everything with you these days everything going all right uh other than the you know this point in week one i think it's been really good excellent fantastic because you know i've been i've been waiting to talk to you for some time i've been waiting to talk to you for some time it's been too long it's been a few months since we have talked and uh a lot has gone on with you i don't know if you're aware of that aaron uh no no not really i mean there's no game of thrones to talk about there's no gamer so what are you watching these days then What are you watching what are you watching i'm anxiously awaiting season three of the uh afterlife okay i'm enjoying the heck out of ted lasso how great is that right and that's amazing it's spectacular um and as is normal during camp training camp it's probably the most tennis ever watch i enjoy the night time watching the us open and just finished up but uh even without the williams sisters and fed and rafa it was uh it was a good tournament well i got to tell you emma radicano her story is one of my favorite sports stories in the history of sports stories that you go from it's amazing Emmaradicano incredible it did you go from you know hey i'm just happy to be here i'm going to try to qualify for the us open and then win it at age 18. that is all kinds of awesome the whole story and and i don't think she lost a set did she no she did not the last the last time she had lost a set i think was uh at at an event in like july that's about it and then she showed up and she qualified and she made it and it's just i i'll be honest man i i told my kids like this is the power of belief in yourself like this is the true story power of belief in yourself fact yeah and let's not overlook her opponent either i mean i think she was what 19 19 i know yeah right and barely in the top 100 and made it and beat i think what three major winners on the way to finals or something unbelievable and then the just the way they comported themselves uh that's pretty cool so that's what you were watching when you were just done watching practicing getting ready for yourself some time i enjoyed watching right i mean i like the early rounds too there's a lot of you know unknowns and up and comers much like those two teenage girls right fun to watch and ted lasso is so much fun too uh because of how positive it is and the positivity of it um and the belief you know the believe sign but roy kent is my favorite character in that entire series he's amazing we that's what we need on on football sports tacos that's exactly what we need that would be roy kent just basically calling bs on everybody you know but there there are some shows on sports tv that come pretty Jeopardy damn close yes they don't have a roy ken i think i could be the roy can't i don't think anybody would would want me to but i think i think there's a few of us that could that could do that how was jeopardy how was that how was the blast absolute blast i had i had so much fun i mean just being around that environment and being on stage that alex shined on for uh more than three decades more than three and a half decades uh getting to know the crew was just so fun i mean the makeup ladies the hair lady the uh stylist all the people on the floor i mean it was it was a dream i mean it was surreal from the first moment i stepped on until uh you know kind of taking my bowels as i left i was just in total gratitude to be there and blown away and really wanted to do a good job i feel like i represented myself and alex well and and just had a lot of fun doing it thankful for that opportunity and it's a hell of an opportunity as you know and you know the the game play of it hosting it is not easy to do and then just being you know part of a broadcast team is just not easy to just get just slip right into and then you get stuff snapped off at you like that guy who who responded to an answer like he was cliff on cheers right where he just blew the answer and he just basically made a a comment about the nfc championship game that was a nice curveball snapchat yeah my first episode too that was that come on it was that was your first one Final Jeopardy he snapped my first yeah my first real episode it was uh it was pretty amazing and the best part is you could kind of see during the 30 seconds uh of final jeopardy when the classic music is playing uh my screen goes to their boards so i can see what they're writing so i started to see the beginning of his answer before i went to take my mark and get ready for the reveal and i could tell it was going in that direction i actually didn't i didn't want to see any more because i wanted to have a natural reaction i want to plan when i but i was thinking he was probably going to go in that direction so once i started saying seeing him write something i was like okay i got gotta get to my spot so i can have just a real authentic reaction to whatever he put down because i know it's gonna be some sort of joke about something packers fans are everywhere are they not aaron rodgers they're absolutely everywhere all right so let's just get into a couple a couple questions that i i want to ask you because man i was wondering i don't know if you're aware everyone was talking about you literally for every day um from pretty much um april all the way through to the day that you did show up uh in green bay was there a time where it was true when all the reporting that you were definitely done playing in green bay you thought in your head i am done i am not going back there because that's the way it was described for a while aaron no i mean i Why he didnt retire think that's definitely an exaggeration i think there were there were many things i was hoping were gonna adjust moving forward but i i never uh closed the door on returning completely just like i didn't close the door on retiring i think i wanted to leave all options open i wanted to handle things uh in private now obviously because of you know who i am and and the nature of our relationship i knew it couldn't be completely quiet there were uh there were other factors involved and and uh you know people with agendas uh involved as well so i knew but i just didn't want to i don't want to comment publicly because i didn't want to trash the team uh that i played for for 16 years i have so much love and affection for this area and so many members of the organization i just you know i just felt like that was the right thing to do now that probably bothered some people because people thought maybe i could have shut things down if i just said something and i thought many times about doing that but every time i thought maybe this is the right time it just seemed felt intuitively um that it was too much emotion wrapped up in it and it wasn't it wasn't the right time and i needed to wait and i feel like uh it was the right decision ultimately and you know i was excited to be back and excited to be back with the guys and also resolute about you know wanting to be a part of change going forward and wanting things to be different what is the change that you received that allowed you to say okay let's do this what was that well Trust and hope i mean i think there was there's nothing necessary that can be stamped on a piece of paper it's more uh trust you know trust is a trust and hope can be beautiful things they can also lead to despair and and frustration as well but i i tend to to be a little more altruistic and optimistic on on those two things and it's trusting and hoping that things uh can improve and and we can all grow together i don't i feel like i wanted to make that clear as well that i wasn't at all a victim ever in this in the circumstance you know i'm fortunate to have played for so long and been paid so well for so long i just want to be a part of things you know continuing to grow and get better in my time here and it's just trusting that we can all grow and and communicate better and do things uh in ways that can continue to find ways to honor our current players former players and and restore dignity to those guys who deserve it and so have you aaron rodgers here in the mercedes-benz vans uh phone line on the rich eisen show have you seen something already has there been a change already that you can maybe point to in a concrete way that that okay this is what i was talking about this is why i wanted to have my say with the front office in a Communication certain manner yeah i mean the communication has definitely been better okay and and that was from kind of the first day i got back uh the communication i think has been a lot better uh being involved in conversations that directly affect my job that was basically what i was saying i wanted i wanted things to to change in that in that manner and i feel like i've been a part of a lot of conversation to directly impact my job so uh starting off uh starting off the right way okay do you have a conversation with tom brady at all on this subject matter since i guess he's kind of the the standard bearer of you know all-time great long time with a team figuring out what what needs to be done for him personally as well with the team that maybe he's thinking about or with sticking with did you have maybe even at any point uh off camera off mike in montana which was beautiful by the way and by the way congratulations on sticking the sticking it to uh phil my gosh when he's just chirping at you but did you have any conversations with with another 12 on the subject matter at any point in time i mean we've we definitely had conversations uh before and after we were mic'd up um you know tom and i have been friends for a long time and and enjoy every time we get a chance to to catch up um but look i i think i know pretty much what went on you know with him down there uh different situation you know i've been here for 16 years and he was going to a new team obviously a lot of the things that he was asking for and wanted he got you know whether it was antonio or gronk or whatnot but um different situation and this is uh you know obviously very personal to me so um i did have some conversations with a number of uh close friends and confidants about this uh situation and those definitely helped uh help me with the right perspective moving forward and then monday night are you gonna just i mean where where are you on this i mean last time you were on and uh last year um or two times ago when you were on last year you said you were at peace with yourself are you gonna when you step out monday night lions lambeau field uh look around like soak it in like this may be one of the last times you do it i mean how are you going about your business on definitely yeah definitely soaking in Monday Night Football uh not thinking about that this could be my last home monday night game or any of those things um but definitely we'll soak it in just we haven't had fans really you know other than small splattering last year in playoffs so it'll be nice to to be back home and hear that crowd noise and in a game that matters i'm gonna have football good chance to respond after a rough first week so that's what i will take in but there's nothing like that first kind of run out on the field and uh pregame and then the first time we have the ball on offense it's just you know that you jog on the field you hear the roar the crowds start to come up and it just i mean your whole body starts tingling the hairs on your arm or standing up and it's it's some it's something special you just can't replicate that no you can't it's a cathedral man it's a cathedral and and there's so many fans that thought honestly that you like you ca it's funny i mean i mean it's not funny but i mean it's kind of crazy i've been saying on nfl network that you're back even though you never left you know and and there may be a lot of fans who thought that that you're going to hear from them monday night that you're going to hear it that they thought that they would Outro never see you come out of that tunnel in that uniform again you know well and yeah and i i i look forward to feeling that there's been some amazing moments over the years uh jogging on and off that field that will always you know stick with me and i hope we got a couple more a couple more this season all right aaron rodgers i greatly appreciate it um i'd love to talk to you throughout the season i always appreciate our chats um and uh you know whenever you do decide to hang it up whatever you want to do i hope it is being the roy kent of sports television my god i hope that's your choice you know what it when it comes down to it yeah that would be fun man and in the meantime you know aaron you know i'll invite you uh you know do you want to do a once a week thing maybe tuesdays on this show aaron what do you want to do go everywhere let me see you know i mean i don't know what you're doing on tuesdays uh but if you want to just every every week you know call in you could just sit wherever you want brick wall behind you i'm just throwing that out there um you know uh and see chop it up just throw it out there i'll get back to you i'll circle back with you let me know let me know okay you take care of yourself aaron rodgers you're the best all right richard thank you man that's aaron rodgers right here monday night football taking on the detroit lions end week two hey you watched all the way to the end thanks for that watch more right here