Aaron Rodgers is ready to tackle issues with his family.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, 38, made a rare comment about their estrangement, suggesting he's hopeful for a reconciliation.
"Many people have issues with family and deal with them in their own ways," he said on an episode of the Aubrey Marcus Podcast released on Aug 3. "For me, I've always tried to deal with it quietly behind closed doors. That hasn't always been the case or hasn't been good enough for a lot of people who want to write about it, or pick it apart, or talk about it, or even some things that my family has said or done over the years that's been public."
Fans learned about Aaron's family drama in 2016, when his brother Jordan appeared on JoJo Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette and told her he and Aaron "don't really have that much of a relationship." In a 2017 New York Times interview, their father Ed confirmed Aaron had not spoken to his family since the end of 2014. (However, the Super Bowl champ told reporters in 2018 that he'd been "at home with my folks in town" for his 35th birthday.)
Despite the rift, Aaron said on the podcast he has "deep gratitude and love" for the way he was raised, the lessons he learned and for the environment he was in, describing this focus on gratitude and counting your blessings as a "perspective shift" he's developed over the years. Specifically, he reflected on the sacrifices his dad made for him and his siblings, who also include his brother Luke, so they could pursue their athletic passions.
"The fact that he was willing to take a chance and go through the poverty that we experienced to make a better life for his kids by going back to school as a middle-aged man—my age, he went back to chiropractic college trying to give us a better life—I have deep, deep gratitude for that," Aaron shared, "and really appreciate the sacrifices that were made on our behalf to give us a better life."
Ultimately, Aaron remains hopeful about his future with his family. "I do believe in healing and I believe in the possibility of reconciliation at some point, but it's a different journey for all of us," he said. "And to judge on the outside about what should be, or what it should look like, or who's wrong and who's right, it's just a game I've never wanted to play and still don't want to play."
But he acknowledged building these bridges may take time. "Who knows what that future is going to look like, when it's going to look like, when the time is going to come?" Aaron continued. "But I have no bitterness in my heart, I have no resentment. I just have deep love and appreciation for the lessons that I learned and the fact that if I hadn't been raised that way, all the good and all the frustrating, there's no way I'd be sitting here today."
He added, "To not have that perspective that because of the things that I experienced I turned out the way I did is looking at the glass as half empty and I just won't do that. I look at it as there were experiences that were important. I chose to be in this family and to deal with everything that I dealt with positive and difficult and I have deep love and gratitude for them and their journeys and hope for the future."
Prior to the podcast interview, Aaron had said little publicly about the family drama. When asked about the estrangement in 2017, the New York Times reported that he responded, "I just don't think it's appropriate talking about family stuff publicly."