New Book Explores Aaron Rodgers' Enigmatic Life and Career
Transcript
00:00We got the great author and writer Ian O'Connor on Coast to Coast today and he's got another
00:10amazing book out, Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers, and it's getting
00:16a lot of buzz and attention and deservedly.
00:19I was just telling Ian, I'm a huge fan of his work through the years.
00:24He's done everything brilliantly as a writer and now he's kicking out these great books,
00:29one after the next.
00:30It starts the sale of this book on August 20th and it's already getting the reaction
00:37certainly from Rodgers.
00:39Now I know that he did this interview with my old friends, Boomer and Geo.
00:46I think that was this morning that he went on their show.
00:50By any chance did you catch him talking about your book today?
00:56I did, Scott, and it's great to be on The Legend, like I said earlier, as far as you're
01:02concerned.
01:03Yeah, I heard him with Boomer and Geo and he hadn't read the book yet.
01:07I was glad to hear that he's at least going to read the first chapter about his grandfather's
01:12heroism in World War II and after that we'll see.
01:17Listen, he made the book better by giving me a two-hour sit-down at his Malibu home,
01:24which obviously he didn't have to give, and he owed me nothing when I started this unauthorized
01:29project, but he's the best interview in the NFL and he proved to be that day and he definitely
01:35made it better with his candor, his thoughtfulness.
01:41I've always found him from a distance to be a great interview and I think that is an underappreciated
01:47part of his public persona.
01:49So, you know, what I can't figure out about him is that he was willing to talk to you
01:57in Malibu and he does such a thorough interview with you and spent that much time with you
02:03and then, you know, he talks about how much he appreciated your work and how much he respected
02:11what you did about his grandfather and then he basically, in not so many words today,
02:17said all the other stories are lies and don't believe anything you read.
02:22Like at some point, you just want to punch him in the face, like what is it going to
02:26be with this guy?
02:27I mean, honestly, like he's cool enough to do the interview with you and talk about all
02:31these things and then he turns around and says, don't believe what you read.
02:38I might have missed that part.
02:39I don't know if he said that on the Boomer and Geo interview or he said it later.
02:44Well, listen, I'll say what he said.
02:47He reached out to five hundred people and talked to maybe half of those people.
02:51I believe he had already written the first draft.
02:53We had a conversation and sat down.
02:56It was more just kind of him asking a few things.
02:58A lot of the stuff that you're hearing here is 20 years old.
03:02I commend him for the time he spent on it, but it's not a book I asked him to write for
03:06me.
03:07He said there are some interesting stories, I'm sure, that are coming out of it.
03:10And a lot of those are not based on fact, to be honest.
03:15Yeah, I there's a reason.
03:17Well, the thing is, there are objective truths and then there is, as he talked about in that
03:23at some point in that interview, perception.
03:25And Aaron Rodgers could be in the middle of an anecdote, a scene somewhere in his life
03:30and there could be four or five other people there that people I talk to and they may
03:34have a different viewpoint on what happened in that scene.
03:37That doesn't mean it's wrong.
03:39And it doesn't mean Aaron's wrong as far as his version of that story is concerned
03:43either. But this book is all I wasn't there.
03:47Obviously, I was living across the country when he was becoming a young football star.
03:53And so I relied on the memories and cooperation of people in his life.
03:58Every fact in that book came out of someone's mouth who knows him, who's a family
04:04member, a friend, a teammate, a coach, an opponent, you name it.
04:08So, listen, I want to see him read the book first because he said he hadn't read it.
04:14And then let's see what his summation is at that point.
04:18But what he's saying right now is irrelevant to me until he reads the book.
04:22You're right. You're right, Ian.
04:24Absolutely. I want to ask you about why when you dug into his personal life, about his
04:33estrangement from his family.
04:36And like, that's amazing to me that like there's only one way to describe it from my end
04:42is how does a guy like I mean, I'll never know.
04:45It's not my family.
04:46It's not my business.
04:47But how does a guy you know, it seems that when you get superstardom and you rise to the
04:53level he has with all the MVPs in a Super Bowl ring and then maybe maybe there's a chance
04:59someone might get a little different and cocky and change a little bit.
05:03But I've never heard of someone that just absolutely disowned his family.
05:09Yeah, as far as superstar athletes are concerned, I think he's the first one I've come
05:13across where he's in this position now where he hasn't talked to his parents and his only
05:18siblings in almost 10 years outside of his brief interaction with his father last year at
05:24Lake Tahoe at the Celebrity Golf Tournament.
05:26They had an emotional hug.
05:27They told each other they loved each other and it was emotional for 30 seconds.
05:32And then it ended.
05:33It was a meaningful moment.
05:34And I think hopefully it was the first baby step towards a reconciliation.
05:38But yeah, and everybody wants a singular reason for why this division in the family
05:44exists. And there isn't a single reason.
05:45There are about 17 reasons and some of them seem from the outside looking in to be pretty
05:51petty. It seems to me that this estrangement has taken on a life of its own.
05:56It's a living organism and he doesn't know how to kill it off.
05:59And so it's easier instead of confronting it and ending it to let it linger.
06:04So hopefully, again, this scene from that I have in the book from Lake Tahoe last summer
06:08with his father. And by the way, the road to reconciliation with the entire family is
06:14going to run through his father's father was his idol, his hero.
06:17He wanted to be his dad.
06:18He had said that when he was a college player and he said in my book, he wants a
06:24relationship with his dad.
06:26And I think when that happens, Scott, the rest of the family comes together in an
06:30organic way, I think.
06:32I hope that comes to fruition for him, because I can tell you when you lose your
06:36father, you'll rue the day that you didn't fix your problems.
06:42Everyone's got all the answers.
06:43When people are alive, they don't have them when they're gone.
06:47I want to ask you about his rehab from this injury.
06:50I was reading Lupica last Sunday about, you know, this is about can this guy come
06:57back from this at his age and that he hadn't won a ring in 13 years?
07:02And he's got one ring for all of his magnificence and his power as a star quarterback
07:08in this league like everyone.
07:10I mean, no one talks about anyone more than this guy in the NFL.
07:14And he's got one ring.
07:15I mean, I've always talked about there's a lot of guys.
07:17Eli Manning's got two.
07:19I mean, honestly, like this guy gets more attention than any player I've ever seen in
07:23my life. That's got one ring.
07:25And then he talked about his failings in the playoffs the last couple of years.
07:30What was it like talking about the rehab of the Achilles?
07:33And do you believe, Ian, that he can be great again?
07:38I think he might have one year of greatness got left in him.
07:41The recovery from the Achilles surgery was brutal in the early hours of that recovery
07:47and rehab. He was questioning whether or not he could ever play again.
07:50He was questioning whether or not the Jets actually wanted him back.
07:53There were some dark, grim moments in those early weeks, but he overcame that.
07:58And then he actually legitimately wasn't a publicity stunt, was trying to play at the
08:03end of last year. He told his trainer, Aaron Alexander, that if we beat Miami on
08:10December 17th on the road, I'm playing Christmas Eve against Washington.
08:14His trainer wanted him to wait until 2024 because he was afraid that he'd rush back,
08:19retear the Achilles, and that would be the end of his career.
08:22So obviously, the Jets lost that game 30 to nothing.
08:26So it became a moot point.
08:28But I think the football gods owe that fatalistic Jet fan base one here.
08:33They sort of owe Aaron Rodgers one here.
08:36And their roster's better.
08:38To me, they look like an 11 and 16.
08:40He's got to stay healthy for at least 14 or 15 starts, and hopefully it'll play out that way.
08:45Out of the darkness, the mystery of Aaron Rodgers out.
08:48Listen, Ian, all of your books are so fantastic.
08:52Coach K, Jack and Arnie, Belichick.
08:55This one's going to be a bestseller.
08:58Your stuff in the newspaper is unequaled by your peers.
09:01You're a badass.
09:03It's an honor to have you on the show.
09:05Obviously, you don't need it, but good luck with the book.
09:07I'm sure you're going to kill it as usual.
09:10And I'm sure it's utterly fantastic.
09:12Thanks for taking time to talk about your great new book with us today on Coast to Coast.