He asks me whether I've read Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (I haven't) and whether the fuzzy white figurine on my mantel is an alpaca (it's a llama) and whether the berries sitting in a bowl on my coffee table are fresh (I have no idea, but I say yes). When he sits down, he scans the room, his eyes flickering as he processes my books, my records, the dog toy I forgot to pick up before he arrived. Typically, writers meet their subjects at a neutral location - somewhere a publicist has chosen to reveal something about the celebrity, like his taste in food or hobbies or charitable work. So now he's sitting a few feet away from me on my sofa in a black T-shirt and jeans, Stan Smiths tapping on the floor, his arm - maybe the most valuable arm in the world - resting on a throw pillow. A couple of hours later, Rodgers texted me and told me he'd come here. The night before, his agent had sent me his phone number, suggesting that we meet at either his place or mine. It's an oppressively warm afternoon in Los Angeles, and I'm sitting in my living room, looking at Rodgers looking at my stuff. He thought about life and football and everything he had invested in his sport, and a jarring realization sprang into his mind.ĮSPN The Magazine's Mina Kimes examines how Aaron Rodgers' on-field success motivated him to seek spirituality off the field. As he reflected on the sacrifices and the slights, he wondered whether it was all worth it, and then he felt something unexpected - not regret or fulfillment but a different sensation, like a space had opened inside of him. The bus rolled along, and he ran it all back in his mind, then pressed rewind and visualized his entire career, retracing the steps he had taken from Chico, California, to Arlington, from beleaguered backup to Super Bowl MVP. Someone brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy on board, and the players passed it around like a collection plate, each taking a moment to palm the sterling silver.Īs his teammates chattered away, the quarterback sat and listened and thought about the plays he had made that night: three touchdowns, zero interceptions, 304 yards.
When the game against the Steelers ended, the team was showered with confetti, then the players trudged down to the bus, where they sat for a while in the bowels of the stadium before heading back to their hotel. It was unusually cold in Arlington during the week leading up to Super Bowl XLV a winter storm had barreled into Texas, blanketing Cowboys Stadium with so much snow that slabs of ice cascaded from the roof. Subscribe today!Īfter the game, Aaron Rodgers got on the bus. This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Sept. This story is available in Spanish and Portuguese.