Turns out, Aaron Rodgers is focused on the upcoming football season after all.
Following rumors that the New York Jets star was a candidate to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate in the upcoming presidential election, Rodgers has resurfaced in California, where he was seen training with members of the USC Trojans .
The 40-year-old was captured in photos obtained by DailyMail.com that show him wearing sunglasses, compression tights and a pair of blue shorts. The mustachioed Rodgers traded fist blows with others as he battled his own exhaustion during outdoor training. He also took some photos with passersby on the famous Santa Monica Steps, where many athletes from the Los Angeles area come to train.
Jets fans have every reason to be happy, as Rodgers appears to be moving well seven months after undergoing surgery to repair the Achilles tendon he ruptured on his first offensive series with the team last September.
Rodgers, who played for USC rival California in college, acknowledged during a podcast appearance last week that he briefly thought his playing career might be over after the injury.
No rest for the weary: Aaron Rodgers, 40, is seen after a grueling workout in Santa Monica
Aaron Rodgers is seen wearing a shirt from Proactive Sports Performance, where he trains.
Rodgers is seen doing some fist bumps after working out with some USC Trojans
Rodgers takes photos with spectators on the steps in Santa Monica after training.
“I was really thinking, ‘This is it.’ You don’t come back from this injury,” the quarterback said during a wide-ranging two-and-a-half-hour interview on the ‘I Can Fly’ podcast, which was released Tuesday.
Rodgers, traded to the Jets last offseason after 18 years with the Green Bay Packers, was injured just four plays into his debut with New York on Sept. 11.
“I had this amazing off-season experience in a new city, in a new town, with new teammates, a new organization, a first-time owner and really falling in love again with the game that I first fell in love with when I was 5 years,” Rodgers said. ‘And it was absolutely beautiful, special, deep, rich, delicious and just incredible.
And then, one of the most heartbreaking nights of my life, when I performed four plays. Talk about the death of the ego.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn’t letting middle age slow him down
Rodgers said he quickly began researching Kobe Bryant’s surgery to repair a similar injury during his playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers and that “the doomsday of my career started to disappear.”
The four-time NFL MVP choked back tears as he spoke to some of his closest friends about his recovery and rehabilitation before flying home to California on Sept. 12.
“I said, ‘I need help,'” Rodgers recalled. ‘This is going to be really hard. I just need all of you to be there for me on the hard days when I stop believing it’s possible.’
Rodgers had surgery the next day and went through an extensive rehabilitation process that he said was helped by prayer, diet and the support of his friends. He insisted that his goal was to return before the end of the regular season, if the Jets remained in playoff contention, while he made the fastest known recovery from a torn Achilles tendon.
Doctors cleared him for some football activities in late November and he said he felt fine, but his comeback attempt was aborted a month later with the Jets out of the postseason and he had not recovered 100% from the injury.
Coach Robert Saleh said last month at the NFL meetings in Orlando, Florida, that Rodgers is on track to practice when the Jets begin voluntary organized team activities next month.
A member of the USC Trojans is seen fist bumping Aaron Rodgers after their workout.
Rodgers appears to be scheduled to return from his Achilles injury for the 2024 season.
Rodgers is now focused on returning to the football field.
“I’m excited to get back to playing,” Rodgers said. ‘I love playing. I fell in love with the game again and then it was taken away from me after four plays. I miss being there, I love competing.
‘Football is my happy place. That’s where I feel like I have the most control of my athletic ability. I missed it last year, I really missed it a lot. My heart was broken. “I’m excited to get out on the field once again and, not in life or death, go into battle with my guys.”
Rodgers said “a lot of things have changed” in his life “for the better” on a personal level since he sat “heartbroken” in the Jets locker room on Sept. 11 and “thought my career might be over.”
“That’s just how all this beauty has been able to happen in the last six months, so how can I not be grateful to the universe?” Rodgers said. “She is a beautiful teacher.”