Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers

Sports journalist O’Connor (Coach K) struggles to get inside the head of NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers in this competent if unenlightening biography. Though Rodgers was of relatively small stature when he joined his high school junior varsity team, he had a strong arm that propelled him to an impressive college career at UC Berkeley. In 2005, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, but he frequently butted heads with star quarterback Brett Favre, who treated Rodgers as a threat. The Packers pushed out Favre after a lackluster 2007 season, giving Rodgers his moment in the spotlight. O’Connor gamely covers Rodgers’s star-making run with the team and the falling-out with coach Mike McCarthy that led to his 2023 trade to the Jets, but the author comes up short in his attempts to make sense of Rodgers’s life off the field. O’Connor offers a granular account of barbs traded in the press between Rodgers and his estranged family, but the origins of the dispute and what it reveals about Rodgers remain unclear. O’Connor also throws up his hands when it comes to elucidating Rodgers’s conspiratorial tendencies, noting that the athlete is habitually drawn to debunked theories about the JFK assassination, 9/11, and Covid vaccines but offering little insight as to why. This comes up short. (Aug.)