(Update, 11/7//2021) - in light of Aaron's falsely entitled, cuckoo rant about vaccinations and "the woke mob," I've changed my mind and this post is now void and moot, and I'm totally betting against Aaron Rodgers and filing a fantasy divorce from him as one of my fantasy co-husbands ;)
Now, it's no secret that I'm not a huge football fan. I know there are a lot of female football fans, and I like to watch sports in general (basketball, hockey, soccer), but with football, I don't know - they start, they stop, they measure stuff, I get bored lol. I think I have sports ADHD lol. If it doesn't move fast and keep moving, I start crowd watching and people watching, even when I'm there.
I do like baseball, though, despite it being slow moving - and that is not only because the rules are easier, but it's so slow that you can take a nap for nearly the entire game, wake up by the ninth inning, not have missed much, and still, the score is the same lol.
(Some might argue hockey scoring is the same way, but unlike baseball, you probably won't take a nap during the game, and if you did somehow manage to fall asleep with all that noise, though the score might be the same when you woke up, you missed a whole lot of action in the meantime lol.)
But then again, I guess most men are socialized to feel the same about women and our relationship talk as women are socialized to feel about football - that we start, stop, and measure stuff too much lol :)
Not because of any "natural gender proclivity," mind you - because we've all been socialized that way.
Someone long ago deemed it was socially acceptable that only women talk about relationships and men don't - that it made men "less of a man" to talk about that stuff - and that women shouldn't like and follow sports.
Both antiquated gender ideas are BS. Men should be able to talk about relationships if they dang well want to, without being called less of a man, and women should like sports if they dang well want to, without being called less of a woman - and who made these rules anyway?
Regardless, clearly, I'm more of a behavioral-interested person, whether naturally or I'm socialized to be - and thus, though I'm not a football fan, I totally heart Aaron Rodgers.
In fact, I think I've mentioned him before as one of my celebrity crushes in this post - which includes my husband's celebrity crushes, and also includes my other celebrity crushes - Stephen Colbert, Sting, Alexander Draymon, and Anthony Bourdain, RIP.
Now - in case you're wondering what the common thread among all of the above guys is, I think it's along the lines of high-intelligence, flexible thinkers; unconventional nonconforming people of integrity, with dry sense of humor - men who never female-bash or speak negatively about the women in their lives or scapegoat/blame them for all their troubles ;)
Oh, and add to that list, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
We ladies love Dwayne Johnson as much as men, but for different reasons lol - which is why he's the highest paid actor in the world, right now.
For me, it's not so much his muscles - big muscles actually scare me lol - it's that smile. (It's never been a secret that I'm a sucker for cute smiles and/or great voices.)
He's got one of those smiles that makes us ladies weak in the knees, plus we love his his quirky, unconventional, not-afraid-to-be-silly personality - and he, too, loves the ladies, never bashes them, and is especially good with children - his own and other people's, which always melts our hearts.
Now, I have these celebrity crushes, but not in a creepy way - lol.
As a matter of fact, I forget all about them lol - and I had to ask my husband this morning to remind me who they were! lol
I've never written to them or anything like that (well, except once Stephen Colbert, last year, commending him on his perfect, balanced handling of the controversy surrounding Kobe Bryant versus other late-night talk shows). I don't even follow their careers or their social media, and I certainly haven't built a shrine to them or anything lol.
I just I admire them as people of good character who earned and deserve their success, unlike so many others - since most celebrities get on my damn nerves, as well as there are many who don't appear to have either truly earned or deserve their success, IMO, and who haven't the slightest idea (or have forgotten) what struggle truly is :/
Anyway, back to my point, and I do have one - why is Aaron Rodgers one of my celebrity crushes, if I don't like football?!?
It's a character thing - besides being highly intelligent and dry-humored funny, he's a class act as far as good character/integrity - and this despite people always betting against him, his whole life, and he's always proven them wrong and overcome numerous obstacles :)
Did you know besides a 1310 SAT score and an A- average in high school, and his obvious athletic ability, he was not part of the college draft - in fact, he was rejected or completely ignored by all the major football schools for scholarships, so he played for a junior college his first two years, because it's the only way he could afford college, as they paid for his tuition to play.
True story.
At 5'10" and fairly skinny, at the time, nobody was interested; and in fact, he had nearly given up on football himself and was planning to become a lawyer, when USC-Berkeley saw him play that they recruited him, asking him to apply, since his grades and his SAT score were excellent (he'd never applied based on just his academics alone) - and boom, he was in - he had never applied based on his academics alone.
Flash forward, to 2008, three years second string to Brett Favre, he's now the starting starting quarterback for Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers - taking them onto the Superbowl :)
So let's mark all of that Exhibit A of "Never bet against Aaron Rodgers" lol
Flash forward again, his family will not stop trying to control his life and trying to outshine him and/or ride on his coattails or steal his thunder - particularly, his brother Jordan - who was constantly like, "Me too! I play football too and am actually better than Aaron (erm - no, you weren't) and ended up on several reality TV shows, most notably, the bachelorette, everybody look at me instead, with my cute hair and overly whitened teeth!!!"
All the while, Aaron just keeps playing football, trying to keep the press out of his private life, and giving interviews in his quiet, low-confident-but-not-cocky, low-key style.
And he's handsome, but less worried about how he looks than Jordan, and more worried about how he plays football - which is sexier to women.
News flash to clueless men when it comes to understanding most (but not all) women - though we want men to take care of their hygiene, health, and physical appearance/appropriateness in public, yes - not too much - no woman wants to be with a guy who's more worried about looking pretty than we women do lol ;)
In 2014, Aaron began dating A-list actress (at the time), Olivia Munn - catapulting both he and Olivia into double super stardom (and it's accompanying speculation), trying to keep it private and on the downlow, to no avail - and his family's antics went into overdrive.
(Love that last photo lol)
Then he went on Celebrity Jeopardy in 2015, winning $50,000 for charity, beating out former astronaut/U.S. Senator, Mark Kelly, and Shark Tank/entrepreneur, Kevin O'Reilly - proving he's no "dumb jock." (FYI, he's also slated to be one of the guest hosts on Jeopardy in 2021, until a replacement is found for Alex Trebek).
At this point, he began to stumble a little bit, seemed to lose focus, performance wise, which the media immediately blamed/scapegoated Olivia for, of course.
His overly vocal family - whom again, both Aaron and Olivia have stated he was already partially estranged from for 8 years before he even met Olivia - helped the press scapegoating, by saying, "Yeah, it's Olivia! Yeah, let's go with that, let's blame her, for both the increasing estrangement and his lack of focus"
Meanwhile, clearly, his brother Jordan's big mouth and fame-craving were on overdrive - bashing both and speculating things about Aaron which he knew nothing about, because they're admittedly estranged - is trying to outshine Aaron on Reality TV (or ride on Aaron's fame coattails) - now appearing on The Bachelorette in 2016.
At this point, somewhere around 2016, during Jordan's stint on The Bachelorette, though Aaron had already been partially estranged from his family for 8 years, he made the decision to now estrange himself from his family completely - a decision, which of course, only brought further blame on Olivia - and we know this because Jordan publicly confirmed Aaron's now total family cutoff while he was on The Bachelorette:/
Apparently, however, this decision was supposedly a desperate attempt at trying to save his strained relationship with Olivia, and also to give his very vocal (on things they knew nothing about) family less to speculate about publicly, simply to garner themselves attention ;)
Unfortunately, it at least appears like too little, too late - because just six months later, after a three-year relationship, Aaron and Olivia broke up, admittedly still loving each other :(
Aaron stated publicly - which was highly unusual for him - that he still loved Olivia (and she him), it was an amicable split, and went on to say that though the press attention was detrimental to them both, everyone blaming her for his performance and focus issues was literally destroying her and her career, and he also hinted at family issues playing a role.
To his credit, Aaron never blamed either Olivia OR his family's antics, nor made excuses for his performance - he blamed no one but himself and lack of focus.
However, I think we can all safely say this was a true dysfunctional-family/group dynamic creating that mess - so let's chalk this up to "When family dysfunction goes into the spotlight" striking again, shall we?
See my two prior posts from late December regarding dysfunctional families when at least one member was/is/or ever has been in the spotlight, i.e., the royal family lol.
Speaking of those posts in late December - remember when I said, after experiencing this myself twice before, something akin to:
"Never date or marry the Golden Child in heightened or extremely dysfunctional families. Whether a narcissist or not, aware of the family dynamic or not, no one will ever be good enough for the Golden Child, and you'll get scapegoated/blamed for everything. Even if Golden Boy becomes aware of the dynamic, he or she will do little about it, for fear of losing Golden Child status ;)"
Ding ding ding! IMO - admittedly from a bird's eye view and not personally knowing any of them - we may have yet another possible contestant on Dysfunctional Families Thrust Into the Spotlight! lol
Perhaps a separate Exhibit A; another example of that family dynamic in action again, that I was talking about, my friends ;)
And news flash - no one will ever be good enough for the Golden Boy, Aaron Rodgers - according to either Aaron's family or his fans - if even one pass is intercepted or he loses focus for a single game, it will always be her fault ;)
And NO, btw - though I do think Aaron Rodgers is/was the Golden Boy in his family and with fans, I do NOT think Aaron Rodgers is a narcissist, just the Golden Child of his family - one does not necessarily beget the other.
Of course, I don't know for sure, but he does have a lot of causes he supports and contributes to, and has been pretty private and positive about exes, etc.
Though in heightened dysfunctional families, the oldest and/or most celebrated is often the most likely to become the golden child/narcissist, this is NOT always the case.
In fact, whatever your birth order, though the golden child in heightened/extreme dysfunctional families is more likely to become the narcissist, it does not automatically mean they will become a narcissist.
Case in point - again - Ross on Friends is a pretty good example - though a fictional, hilarious depiction of this dynamic, it's a very real dysfunctional family dynamic ...
Ross can do no wrong by his parents, who are always blaming younger sister, Monica, for his troubles, or his girlfriends/wives - but Ross himself knows this is praise for a false facade of himself and therefore BS, and thus is actually plagued with insecurity.
And Ross is empathetic towards others - but at the same time, not always aware if the damage being the "Golden Boy" in his family is doing to the other members of the family or girlfriends/wives - you have to put it right in from of him to get him to see it.
This is where Ross is not innocent in the dynamic - because even when you DO put directly in front of him the inequity and scapegoating, Ross is now aware, and yet afraid to fully confront his dysfunctional family about it, lest he lose that Golden Boy status - and I fear the same is true for Aaron Rogers?
Hey, nobody's perfect - and it's clear that Aaron Rogers isn't anywhere similar to Ross otherwise - because he clearly isn't plagued with insecurity of being praised for a false facade of himself that he consciously knows does not exist - Aaron clearly believes in himself, even when no one else does.
However, I suspect that Aaron IS like Ross in that though he, too, has empathy, he also isn't so aware of how devastating it can be not to be the golden child and how others in his life are mistreated/scapegoated - particularly any girlfriends - and when directly confronted with it, doesn't do much about it (perhaps out of fear of losing golden boy status?) - until it is too late :(
Again, nobody's perfect - but doesn't this situation seem to have played out exactly as I said those roles do, in dysfunctional families in the spotlight - hasn't it?
Regardless, in the end, Aaron DID finally realize the gravity of toll it was taking on Olivia and her career - so this is a man who let the woman he loved go, because of what all of the blame and scapegoating and negative attention was doing to her - he let her go because he loved her - too much to let his fame and family dynamics destroy her and her career.
And at the same time, he realized much of the problem had to do with his family and the way they'd treated her and how much they tried to control his life - and thus completely actually divorced his own family as a result, letting them play their games all by themselves, so they'd recognize they'd still have problems amongst themselves or just find new scapegoats they'd run out of eventually lol.
And what happens when he estranges himself in total from his family in 2016?
Bingo - he starts playing better again.
Exhibit B of why we "Never bet against Aaron Rogers" lol :)
(Unfortunately, Olivia Munn's career has never seemed to have yet recovered from all the scapegoating blame and drama.)
Flash forward to 2020. Aaron is now 37 years old. There have been injuries, there's been COVID, and though sports press DO report facts (unlike other "news outlets), they are also famous for commentators sitting there forecasting and speculating about things they have no clue about.
Now, ESPN - the primary instigator of reporting facts mixed with speculation - and upon the staff which now includes Aaron's brother, Jordan, mind you - starts talking about his contract being up, his Aaron being too old/washed up, possibly the Packers replacing Aaron due to poor play the prior year (I would say poor team play, the prior year), yada yada yada.
Then lo and behold, despite all of this speculation and he said/she said garbage - Aaron comes out fighting - and the Green Bay Packers beat the LA Rams last night, putting them at number 1 in the NFC, now in the playoffs.
And Aaron Rodgers gives an interview and is basically like, "See? All this speculation, all this talk about who's washed up, what will happen, who will do what, as if it's all fact when it's not, it's all bullshit."
And there you go again, ladies and gentlemen - the Exhibit C reason why you should "Never bet against Aaron Rodgers" lol :)
As for his love life, he and Danica Patrick started dating in 2017, but supposedly split up in July 2019 - again, much scapegoating controversy about her.
Danica was a safer bet for him, as she was accustomed to having lots of negative attention already, in a male-dominated sports field, whereas Olivia's acting career could be destroyed in a heartbeat by it.
And Hell, there's no worse backwards-ass, good ole boy misogyny than in NASCAR lol.
So you would think if anyone could handle scapegoating, it'd be Danica, right?
Erm, maybe not - because now, the press attention is now doubled - which means her negative press attention/blame doubles, too.
And I have to wonder if he truly learned his lesson about how much awareness he he should have about how allowing/not saying anything until too late that that much negative attention in dysfunctional-family/group scapegoating blame affects the women in his "golden boy" life - that it devastates not only her, but his efforts at having relationships.
Then again, here's something curious I noticed - and I admit, this is just pure speculation - I don't know these people.
And yet something curious I just noticed ...
Are he and Danica truly broken up?
Because look at the timing of this breakup - right before the season started.
I just Googled this morning, and I found conflicting reports, both that they are and they aren't.
They admittedly broke up in July, but some say they're back together. Others say he's dating her friend, The Descendants actress, Shailene Woodley.
Hmm.
Now, here's the thing - maybe that's all true.
Maybe Danica is "devastated" by the "betrayal" of her friend with Aaron, etc. - but this all is so tabloid gossip language and he said/she said, which already leaves things suspect lol.
So why can't I help wondering about the odd timing of this break-up, and about Shailene and Danica being friends first - and if this isn't what it appears at all?
I'm not sure why, but here's what popped into my head - what the smartest thing to do would be, if you were dating Aaron Rodgers, at this point lol.
While the season's on, let everyone think you're broke up or on a break and not go anywhere in public with him. Then, ask each one of your close single friends to go out and be seen with Aaron publicly, here and there, to throw the press off.
That way, his family, the press, and fans can't speculate and blame, me or any one particular woman, if he struggles in a game or loses ;)
Wouldn't that be the smartest thing to do, if you were dating Aaron Rodgers, and you trusted both him and a few close good girlfriends? lol
I totally would do that :)
Maybe that's not what's going on here at all, as it seems he and Danica did at least legitimately break up in July - and still, I can't help but wonder - and what I DO know is that both Aaron and Danica are extremely smart people.
Regardless, Aaron's in the playoffs now - and if he loses, you can't blame his current girlfriend anymore - sorry!
Regardless, I would never bet against Aaron Rodgers ;)
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PS - It may be a few days before I post again, or update my "12 Days When Trump Left" song post, as I'm having a tooth extraction/dental implant put in on Tuesday.
I have three teeth crowded together, from where I had two extractions as a child preparing for braces I never received - and the crown one of those teeth, for which I had a root canal in 2013, broke off, along with the tooth, a few weeks ago - ironically, while watching "The Crown" lol - but I'll be back :)
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