Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers plans to mull his future during a four-day “darkness retreat” after the upcoming Super Bowl.
“It’s an opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation and after that, I feel like I’ll be a lot closer to that final, final decision,” the four-time NFL MVP said Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“I’ve had a number of friends who’ve done it and they had profound experiences.”
Rodgers, 39, said he’s undecided about playing in 2023 — with the Packers or another team. Retirement is also an option.
“For sure; it’s a real thing, 100 percent,” Rodgers said of not playing in the NFL. “That’s why it’s going to be important to get through this week and to take my isolation retreat and just to be able to contemplate all things my future and then be able to make a decision that I think is best for me moving forward and in the highest interest of my happiness and then move forward.”
Rodgers detailed that his darkness retreat will keep him in pitch black for four days and four nights. It will take place in a small house in an undisclosed location, with no other contact from the outside world aside from meals being delivered.
“It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts,” Rodgers said. “It stimulates DMT (the drug dimethyltryptamine), so there can be some hallucinations in there but it’s just kind of sitting in silence, which most of us never do. We rarely even turn our phone off or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Rodgers was named NFL MVP in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021, but he endured one of the worst seasons of his career in 2022. He completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 3,695 yards and 26 touchdowns while tossing 12 interceptions.
–Field Level Media
