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    Aaron Rodgers Announces Retirement From NFL After 2026 Season

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    Watch: Aaron Rodgers Confirms Retirement From NFL After 2026 Season

    Aaron Rodgers is hanging up his uniform for good. 

    The football player announced that, after more than 20 years in the NFL, his upcoming season as quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers will be his last. 

    Indeed, the 42-year-old confirmed while speaking with reporters May 20 that “yes, this is it.” 

    The news comes just days after Aaron finalized a one-year contract with the Steelers, worth up to $25 million. And his swan song season will also reunite him with Mike McCarthy, his coach for 13 years during his tenure on the Green Bay Packers, who assumed the head coach role following Mike Tomlin’s departure.

    Aaron had previously shared insight into his plans for retirement, teasing that his career would end with the 2025 season in Pittsburgh. 

    “I’m pretty sure this is it,” Aaron said on the Pat McAfee Show said in June. “That’s why we just did a one-year deal. Steelers didn’t need to put any extra years on that or anything, so this was really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I’ve had.”

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    As he noted at the time, “I played 20 fricking years. It’s been a long run. I’ve enjoyed it, and no better place to finish than in one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL.”

    But when the Steelers’ 2025-2026 season didn’t end with a new ring on his finger, the quarterback, who quietly married wife Brittani in June 2025, reconsidered his future with the NFL.

    Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images

    “I’m not going to make any emotional decisions,” he told reporters after his final playoff game. “I’m disappointed. Obviously, it was such a fun year. A lot of adversity but a lot of fun. Been a great year, overall in my life, the last year, and this is a really good part of that, coming here and being part of this team, so it’s disappointing to be sitting here with the season over.”

    So, the opportunity to reunite with his former coach was a tempting one for Aaron. As he put it, “There is a full aspect circle that piqued my interest of coming back.”

    Meanwhile, Aaron’s Pittsburgh teammates are excited to have him back on the field. 

    “Even in the first day, he made a couple of great throws,” wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said to ESPN of training with Aaron. “And I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really playing with Aaron.’ It’s great. I mean, I get to play with another Hall of Fame quarterback.”

    Kicker Chris Boswell also noted the team’s momentum was shifting in a good direction with Aaron’s return. 

    “For him to come back early right now,” he said, “and be around the guys, obviously one of his previous coaches, I mean, it’s only positive.”

    For more insight into Aaron’s life and relationships off the field, read on. 

    Elsa/Getty Images

    Micala DrewsEven before Aaron Rodgers was a four-time MVP, Micala Drews thought he was a catch.According to Ian O’Connor’s book Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers released Aug. 20, Aaron and Micala dated while enrolled at Pleasant Valley High School in Chico, Calif. They were both athletic—the book noting she played volleyball and did conditioning and weightlifting sessions with the football player—and Micala described him as “a funny slightly awkward kid.”“However, he was a natural-born leader,” Micala told Ian, “but not so much in words as he led by action and humble confidence.”Those actions included staying focused, working hard and putting in extra hours of practice, with Micala noting Aaron’s dad Ed Rodgers—who also shares sons Jordan Rodgers and Luke Rodgers with wife Darla Rodgers—supported him in his desire to play professionally.”Aaron and his dad had such a close relationship,” she added, “and Aaron had that with his brothers and mom as well. But Ed took so much time, and on any Friday night Ed would be in the stands taking copious stats for Aaron.” And afterwards, Micala continued, Aaron ended his Fridays not by going out with pals but by reviewing game footage with his dad. So perhaps she isn’t surprised by his success. After all, Micala recalled in the book how Aaron—who she called Air—told her about his dreams of playing in the NFL.”Someday,” she replied, per the book, “people will refer to your home stadium as ‘Mister Rodgers’ Neighborhood.'”  

    Simon Bruty /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

    Destiny NewtonWhile many know Aaron was previously engaged to Shailene Woodley, not everyone is aware he’d popped the question once before to a woman named Destiny Newton.According to the book, the two “got serious” in 2011, with her being “an attractive Chico woman whom he had known—and had a crush on—for years.” However, Aaron and Destiny’s relationship didn’t last, with the publication noting the Super Bowl champ and his fiancée broke up in 2013.Although, it looks like some may have wished they’d stayed together. In the book, Ian wrote that Aaron’s parents had “privately hoped that their son would marry” Destiny.“We all loved her,” an unnamed Rodgers friend told the author. “We knew Destiny. We trusted her. She would have kept the crew tighter.”

    Jason Merritt/Getty Images

    Olivia MunnIn 2014, Aaron began dating Olivia Munn. And soon, they had to tackle rumors on where they stood with his dad Ed, mom Darla and brothers Luke and Jordan.Ed once confirmed to The New York Times that Aaron stopped speaking to his family at the end of 2014. In Out of the Darkness, Ian wrote the parents visited the Packers alum in Green Bay, Wis. before a game that December. During their stay, the author added, the parents “enjoyed a pleasant conversation” with Olivia and “left town believing there were no problems among them.”
     
    However, things allegedly changed after Aaron had a poor game in Buffalo, New York later that month. Ian, citing unnamed sources, wrote Olivia called Ed and Darla that night and allegedly told them not to attend or meet them at Aaron’s upcoming game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida as previously planned.Olivia declined Ian’s request for comment for the book. As for Aaron’s parents, they told the author they hadn’t made any disparaging comments to Olivia prior to the alleged call.“The only thing I said was, ‘You haven’t been on the scene very long,’” Ed added. “’You’re just his girlfriend. We’re his parents.'”The book details other alleged moments of tension. For instance, “someone close to the family,” who was not named, alleged Darla was upset by comments Olivia had made publicly about sex, including in an interview before the Buffalo game.E! News has reached out to Olivia’s rep for comment on the book.

    Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

    After three years together, Aaron and Olivia broke up in 2017. And in an Andy Cohen Live interview the following year, the X-Men: Apocalypse star addressed rumors about her ex’s family.Olivia said she was “friendly” with Aaron’s brother Jordan—who appeared on now-wife JoJo Fletcher‘s season of The Bachelorette and spoke about the siblings’ estrangement—and that she’d met their mom and dad “only a couple of times.” She did not reveal whether she met Aaron’s brother Luke.However, Olivia suggested the family drama started before her romance with Aaron—saying “he hadn’t spoken to the parents and one brother for, like, eight months before we started dating.” (She didn’t name which brother, but the book claims it was Luke, who declined Ian’s interview request).In fact, she said she encouraged Aaron to have an “honest” talk with his parents and try to mend the relationship.”They had a really nice conversation,” Olivia said on the SiriusXM series, “and then they started coming out my first year when I was in Green Bay in 2014.”But without going into detail, she indicated things changed.In the book, Ed said “it’s a lie” that Aaron had already stopped talking to his parents and brother prior to dating Olivia.”She just made stuff up to make herself look good….She said the family was dysfunctional before she met Aaron, which is bull,” he told Ian. “We were going to all of his games; we were staying at his house. We had a great relationship. Nothing bad was going on.”

    Taylor Hill/Getty Images

    During her interview with Andy, Olivia expressed how “family and fame and success can be really complicated if their dreams are connected to your success”—noting both Aaron and his family members have careers in athletics.”They’re all in sports, and Aaron is one of the best if not the best quarterback to ever play the game,” she explained. “Their work has a direct connection to what he does. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of complications. I don’t think either side of the road is clean, but I do think it’s not OK when you try to stand on someone’s shoulders and then throw dirt in their face, which is what I think they did with him.”However, Aaron’s mom Darla denied this was the case.“I can think about showbiz families that, like the Kardashians, climb all over each other for fame and stuff like that,” she said in the book. “But that’s not our family. Nobody did that.”

    Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for DirecTV

    For Aaron’s part, he said in the book that Olivia—who shares 2-year-old son Malcolm with husband John Mulaney—was not to blame for the family drama and that she “has nothing to do with all the years before.” The 40-year-old—who spoke highly of his relationship with the Lifeline actress during their time together—also wondered why his parents and siblings have spoken publicly about the divide.”I have questions about why they feel the need to talk about it, because it’s like a game of poker,” Aaron told Ian. “When you are holding all the cards, you don’t have to bluff. There’s nothing they can say other than make up stories, but look at facts.”The book does provide other examples of alleged family friction, including Aaron not attending a friend’s wedding in 2015 after learning his family was also invited (with him telling Ian there’s a lack of understanding of “the complexity of the whole situation”). And after Jordan appeared on The Bachelorette, Aaron told WISN 12 Sports he “always found that it’s a little inappropriate to talk publicly about some family matters” so he wasn’t going to expand on the topic but wishes “him well in the competition.”Jordan did not respond to Ian’s interview requests. E! News has also reached out to him for comment on the book but has yet to hear back.

    Stewart Cook/Shutterstock

    Danica PatrickAfter Aaron’s relationship with Olivia came to an end, he dated Danica Patrick. While the racecar driver confirmed their relationship in 2018, they’d actually met years before striking up a romance.”We met at the ESPYS back in 2012,” Danica—who grew up a fan of the Packers’ rivals, the Chicago Bears—shared on The Jenny McCarthy Show in 2018. “We both remember….It was quick. I got his email address. And I remember thinking to myself back then, ‘Oh, not a phone number, just an email address.'”During their relationship, the couple had red-carpet date nights, traveled to Peru and gave peeks inside their romance on social media. And while there were reports in 2019 that Aaron and Danica were living together in a $28 million Malibu mansion, he said in Out of the Darkness, “I didn’t buy it with anybody.”The couple broke up in 2020. However, Aaron has spoken highly of their romance.”That relationship was great for me because she is on her own journey,” he said on a 2022 episode of Aubrey Marcus‘ podcast. “Spirituality is important to her. We both were finding our way, learning about different things, practicing different meditation techniques.”

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    Shailene WoodleyIn February 2021, E! News exclusively revealed that Aaron and Shailene were in a long-distance relationship. Just days later, the quarterback announced at the NFL Honors that he was engaged, and the actress confirmed on The Tonight Show later that month that the proposal actually happened “a while ago.”Shailene isn’t mentioned much in Out of the Darkness. However, Ian writes that The Fault in Our Stars alum supported Aaron when he skipped the Packers’ offseason in 2021 amid disagreements with the team, with the author pointing to a video Shailene reportedly retweeted that showed ESPN host Stephen A. Smith criticizing the Packers’ treatment of Aaron.In February 2022, reports spread that Shailene and Aaron—who professed his love for her on Instagram—split. And the Big Little Lies star later opened up about what it had been like to have such a public relationship.“I dated somebody in America who was very, very famous,” she told PORTER in January 2023. “It was the first time that I’d had a quote-unquote ‘famous’ relationship, and I watched [the] scrutiny, opinions, the desire for people to know my life and his life and our life—it just felt violating in a way that, before, it was fun. I’m a very private person, and so I found that any time I posted anything, I instantly felt like I was sharing too much of who I am with people I didn’t necessarily trust.” 

    Dave Shopland/Shutterstock

    Speaking About His SexualityWhile Aaron generally prefers to pass on talking about his personal life, he addressed rumors about his sexuality in 2013.“I’m not gay,” he said on an episode of his radio show Tuesdays With Aaron. “I really, really like women. That’s all I can say about that.”As for why the QB decided to speak out in the first place? He said the rumor was presented in a way that was “disrespectful” to his friends who are gay.“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,” Aaron said in the book. “And right before that, [the radio show’s host Jason] 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–t what they thought about me, but that they’re using this to shame, like it’s a bad thing to be gay.”

    Dave Shopland/Shutterstock

    Dreams of FatherhoodWhile the future of Aaron’s relationship with his parents and brothers remains unclear, he’s expressed his hope to start his own family one day. As he put it in the book, his desire to be a dad is fueled by his want to “care for somebody who relies solely on you for so many things—food, protection, housing, life.”

    AP Photo/David Stluka

    Where Aaron Stands With His FamilyAs far as reconciliation, Aaron suggested he and his family haven’t reached the end zone yet. “It’s definitely possible,” he told Ian. “It’s just timing, just timing. Every time I think it’s getting closer, some weird things happen. But I would like a relationship with my dad for sure.” The father-son duo had a run-in not too long ago. According to the book, Aaron spotted Ed at the 2023 American Century Championship—where the NFL star was playing golf and his dad had gotten a ticket—and went up to him. “I just thought, ‘What’s best in this moment, and what kind of gift could I give him?’” Aaron added. “Because I do love him. I don’t have animosity toward him, even with all the stuff that’s been said and done.” Per the book, the family members hugged and said “I love you,” with it being the first time they spoke in years. However, Ian noted there was no follow-up communication (though he wrote Ed and Darla attended Aaron’s first game with the Jets, where he tore his Achilles tendon in a season-ending injury).Still, the parents expressed their hope for the future.“Yes, we’re all about forgiving and forgetting,” Darla told Ian. “We would be so happy to move on….Maybe we don’t see him all the time. We’re OK with however it’s framed. The new relationship needs to start and it just feels weird that we can’t communicate even big-life things with him.”Added Ed, “We have unconditional love for him. No matter what happened, we would just like the relationship.”

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