Aaron Rodgers speaks out ahead of return to football after injury

now we have Aaron Rogers one-on-one The 40-Year-Old Jets quarterback sat down with ESPN as he returns to the field tonight for his first game since a season ending injury just minutes into his first game last season let's go back to will reev there in San Francisco for us hey there again will hey there Robin Aaron Rogers elicits a range of opinions but football fans are united and their belief that he is a Hall of Famer and jets fans are certain that he is the guy who's going to to make their dreams come true and they felt that way last year too but Rogers debut in New York lasted all of four plays now he's back and he's going deep in a new interview what do you expect that moment to be like when you run back out on the field yeah I think it's going to be uh emotional for sure Superstar quarterback Aaron Rogers opening up to ESPN's Alex Smith on the eve of his highly anticipated return almost one year to the day of last year's season ending Achilles injury he's coming out of the game there's an image I can't get out of my head a year ago it's freaking Monday Night Football it's 911 you're running out with an American flag like everybody in their mom is watching right this amazing storyline that's about to unfold and and like Wham obviously we we all got cheated out of it I'm curious though A year later now like what like what are your memories that day like what's yeah you know it's kind of a blur honestly um I knew when I was on the ground that something was wrong and sometimes you get drilled and you know something's off and you just kind of hope you get up and it kind of like shakes itself out sometimes you know you're like oh okay well that's just a sprained MCL or ankle that's you I got to walk off but when I stood up I said ah I knew it and then just thinking that's going to be the last time you know because I know I'm old and and the rehab I know I knew was going to be tough and so in the training room I really thought damn that's how I'm going to go out the injury crushing the dreams of jets fans who hoped the four-time MVP would turn around a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2010 and hasn't won a Super Bowl since 1969 yeah I mean it's been a tough it's been a tough year it's probably been the best year of my life though at the same time when you get hurt in a significant way it's a reset on life and everything just stops he says his recovery over the past year has has been both physical and mental you become sedentary you can't move you got to be waited on by people you got to be taken care of and as somebody who loves taking care of other people you know I mean talk about life lesson right there of just like sitting in all the frustration the sadness the Heartbreak when you go from sitting your ass on a couch to now I can actually walk to the bathroom with crutches then I can actually walk in a shoe those are exciting times but the mental part takes forever because you're still trying to get over the frustration the heartache the Heartbreak the what if the what could have been the excitement feeling like he let people down he still wonder can I go out there and do it um until you've done it now training camp was awesome for me because I had one of the better camps I've had I just felt like but every day I was telling one of the coaches this every day I got to remind myself I'm great I got to go out there and remind myself I can do this it's been a couple years since I played you know full game Rogers says he's grateful for the experience it was a total reset for my life and I'm so thankful for it in the moment you never think and I never said I don't even like this saying everything happens for a reason because I'm like really yeah but I do believe if you can't get out of your own way you're going to miss all the Little Miracles that go on around you the people that come into your life and take care of you but at its Essence football is a physical violent game and at 40 years old Rogers is the oldest player in the NFL have you been tackled yet no the last time you got tackled your key's ruptured right like you're going to go through this on Monday Night Football in front of the country it's fascinating have you thought about that like yeah of course of course like no no other position I was kind of hoping that you know Tac or somebody would accidentally like drill me in practice cuz you just get it out the way you know just somebody accidentally like come screaming too hard to get push and you get to knock but nothing happened I was upright the whole time I might have gotten stepped on and fallen down at one point as for this season the future Hall of Famer says he expects greatness I take the back roads every day to work so it's a little longer Drive I just enjoy like my time in the morning to just think about how special it is to be 40 to still be playing to still have a chance to come to work with a team that has a legitimate chance to be one of the final teams um that's fun so I don't take that for granted and who knows what's going to happen Aaron Rodgers returns to the field tonight against the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football 8:15 Eastern on ABC and ESPN and ESPN plus and the Manning cast on ESPN too guys lots of football tonight