Aaron Rodgers isn’t just one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history — he’s also one of the most polarizing. When he’s not winning Super Bowls and breaking records on the field, he’s busy stirring up controversies off it. Whether it’s confusing fans and the media about his vaccination status, dabbling in 9/11 conspiracy theories, or going toe-to-toe with Jimmy Kimmel by hinting at Epstein ties, Rodgers finds himself in the headlines far too often. But while he’s the type to shrug off the backlash by being indifferent to public opinion, there’s one rumor that gets under his skin: the ongoing speculation about his sexuality.
The gay rumors have been going around since the early 2010s, when fans and online detectives started drawing conclusions that weren’t there, speculating that Rodgers was romantically involved or perhaps had even been in a long-term relationship with his former personal assistant and roommate. There were even claims that he had been “outed” by the guy on social media, but of course, Rodgers had never addressed any of it. But when it all became too much, he went right ahead and clarified that he was straight — and, by his own admission, maybe a little too into the ladies.
Rodgers said he ‘really, really likes women’
With Aaron Rodgers’ apparent appetite for conspiracy theories, it’s easy to imagine he spends a little too much time online for his own good. So, when the gay rumors about him started swirling, it was no shock that he was well aware of them. In fact, during one of his “Tuesdays with Aaron” segments on ESPN 540 Milwaukee back in 2013, Rodgers himself brought up the topic and set the record straight. He touched on the challenges of being a public figure, like not meeting everyone’s expectations, disappointing fans when declining a photo, and, of course, getting dragged into “crazy rumors” from time to time.
“Oh, you mean the Aaron Rodgers is gay story?” the host asked, to which Rodgers replied, “Yeah. I’m just going to say, I’m not gay. I really, really like women. That’s all I can say about that.” What’s interesting, however, is that Ryan O’Callaghan, a former NFL player who is openly gay, mentioned in his book “My Life On The Line” that around the same time Rodgers was quashing those rumors, he abruptly cut off all contact with O’Callaghan. The timing was suspicious enough to make fans — and O’Callaghan — wonder if the two events were connected. “With no warning, he suddenly cuts off all communication … We had been communicating regularly, and he was going to finance a million-dollar project that I was going to manage. Now nothing. Zero. Radio silence,” he wrote (via Outsports). “Some might read this and think Aaron cut off communication with his gay friend when rumors about him being gay came up. This could be the case, but I don’t know for sure.”
Rodgers defended his initial statement years later
It’s no surprise that critics wasted little time picking apart Aaron Rodgers’ statement about his sexuality, with some saying it came off as defensive and clumsily worded. But in 2024, Rodgers finally offered more context, revealing to author Ian O’Connor in “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers” that he felt the need to speak up — not for himself, but to defend his friends in the LGBTQ community.
“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,” he said, according to Page Six. “That’s just disrespectful to all my friends who are in the community who don’t believe that it’s a choice … They were making it seem like you’re shaming people for being gay, when a lot of them, if you ask them, they didn’t ask for this life. ‘This is who I am.'”
To be fair, Rodgers does seem genuine regarding his support for the LGBTQ community. He’s made it clear that he’s not a fan of bigotry, once telling ESPN that he disapproves of hecklers spewing discriminatory terms during games. “I don’t agree with any type of racist or homophobic language, any of that type of stuff from the crowd to the people on the field,” he said.
