NFL

Rodgers embarking on four-day 'darkness treat' to consider future

By Sports Desk February 07, 2023

Aaron Rodgers is going on a four-day "darkness retreat" in an attempt to help evaluate his future amid retirement and trade speculation.

Four-time NFL MVP Rodgers is considering his future with the Green Bay Packers, who missed the 2022 playoffs, amid reports his team are mulling over a trade.

The quarterback only signed a three-year, $150million extension in March but endured a difficult season in which he threw for 3,695 yards, the fewest in any of his full seasons during his career.

Rodgers has not ruled out retirement either and told The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday he will embark on a "darkness retreat" that includes "four nights of complete darkness" to help consider his future.

"I've got a pretty cool opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation," the 39-year-old said. "And then, after that, I feel like I'll be a lot closer to a final, final decision."

Rodgers is yet to decide whether he will continue in the NFL with the Packers or another team, with retirement still an option.

"For sure; it's a real thing, 100 per cent," Rodgers said of retirement.

"That's why it's going to be important to get through this week and to take my isolation retreat and just to be able to contemplate all things my future and then be able to make a decision that I think is best for me moving forward and in the highest interest of my happiness and then move forward."

He added: "It's just kind of sitting in silence, which most of us never do. We rarely even turn our phone off or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness. I'm really looking forward to it."

The Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets are reportedly interested in Rodgers, who reiterated his commitment to the Packers.

"I'm not a free agent, I'm under contract with the Packers," Rodgers said. "That gets lost in the conversation a lot.

"In years past, there's been a couple of years where we got ousted from the playoffs by the Niners and then I went and played at Pebble and those years were very razzing, I would say, from the crowd. A lot of Niner yells and other various well-timed trash talk.

"This year was a lot more positive, I think. The sentiment was very positive, people wanting me to get traded to their team, and the Raiders fans were probably the most vocal and the most numerous."

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