Is this tabloid stuff? Yes. 100%. But anticipating and reacting to Aaron Rodgers, more than with most athletes, requires attempts to evaluate his psyche. So, as we wait for his decision on whether to keep playing in 2023, here’s everyone he’s been in a relationship with, from most confirmed to most alleged:
Shailene Woodley
Very confirmed. They were engaged.
Olivia Munn
Again, as confirmed as it gets.
Danica Patrick
Another thoroughly confirmed.
Mallory Edens
The Green Bay Press Gazette has even reported on this, but it’s possible others further down the list got this level of confirmation and it’s just not easy to find online anymore. We’re pretty sure it’s true, and as the kids say, we “ship” it, because out of the rest of the six real ones, Edens is definitely in the top half for what’s good for the Packers, as measured by how likely each is to convince Aaron Rodgers to do normal things like just take the damn 58 million dollars and how likely she is to, as a Wisconsin sports person herself, try to convince Aaron Rodgers to do what’s best for the Pack. Is Jordan Love a good quarterback? Mallory, please find out and proceed accordingly.
Jessica Szohr
Rodgers was “linked” to Szohr a few times, first in 2011 and then on a 2014 reunion tour that featured bowling with Taylor Swift (which led to some Taylor Swift rumors that were pretty obviously baseless—the same thing happened with Mila Kunis, they were just at the same party while he was actively there as someone else’s date).
Blu of Earth
We never got explicit confirmation on this one, but they were spotted together and Rodgers briefly went deep into the Burning Man world before getting that normal haircut and pulling himself out of it. Circumstantial evidence.
Destiny Newton
Late addition to the list. Credit to Michael for remembering this one. We know the least about her, and she should probably be in the category above Edens but we already wrote all that “top six” stuff below. The summary is that Rodgers was reportedly engaged to a woman he’d known since childhood. More specifically, she was seen at a Vanderbilt game with him (watching Jordan Rodgers) while wearing an engagement ring. It is unclear what happened.
Hillary Scott
Rodgers was spotted with Hillary Scott, of whatever Lady Antebellum is called now, back in 2010. Credit to Derek for remembering this one.
Marie Margolius
After Rodgers and Munn split, Rodgers was seen with Harvard soccer alumna and ESPN employee Marie Margolius getting dinner in New York City. We’re right on the border of “rumored relationship” here.
Julie Henderson
Back in 2009, another sighting at a dinner in New York, this time with swimsuit model Julie Henderson.
Erin Andrews
Rodgers said this “wasn’t anyone’s business,” but he and Erin Andrews were seen having lunch together in Green Bay in 2010. It wasn’t an outright denial, but it’s also rare that he’s asked explicitly about relationships. One possible explanation of the Andrews and Margolius “dates” is that Rodgers was trying to sway media representation of him, which might be the explanation for every single one of these, now that we say it out loud.
Kelly Rohrbach
Another alleged “friend,” Rodgers was seen golfing with this swimsuit model once.
Kevin Lanflisi
The loudest among the speculated, Rodgers’s one-time roommate and fellow dude–who–seems–like–he–had–a–damaging–childhood was the talk of the internet about nine years ago. I don’t know if Rodgers was ever asked about Lanflisi but he did address the rumors he was gay (he said he wasn’t) and Lanflisi is married now (to a woman). This reminds me a little of when a friend of ours was in the process of coming out and we didn’t know who he was secretly dating but the guy we thought it was absolutely sucked. Thankfully, we eventually found out it was another friend who was also in the process of coming out, and that guy rocks, which brings us to the next one on this list.
Harry Styles
This is pure, pure, pure rumor, but there is some unhinged shit on the internet about it, so it’s got a lot of steam. There’s a word document that gets texted around with lines like “Aaron is now allegedly engaged to Danica Patrick… a NASCAR driver. If that is not enough reason to believe they were both bearding each other then idk what to tell you,” and, “There is one thing to be true; Aaron Rodgers was at one point in his life, banging Harry Styles,” and, “I’d like to give a final thanks to everyone who has believed in me and not squashed my theories and revelations,” which sounds dangerously like something I would write on this website.
The document is among the wildest documents known to be in existence, and I will gladly send it to people I know if asked but I don’t feel comfortable posting it online for reasons of it being among the wildest documents known to be in existence.
Relatedly, Aaron Rodgers hung out with Jason Sudeikis this fall when the Packers were in London. I wonder if Sudeikis knew about the rumor.
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What do these say about Aaron Rodgers?
First, people have always loved speculating about him. Even before he really let out how wacky he is (I think of this as happening in 2015, when that Sports Illustrated article was published where John Kuhn told us Rodgers says “everything is bugged”). Was it because he was a good, single quarterback? Was it because people have an inner radar for who’s wacky? That’s an area for further study.
Second, everyone in the top six could be confidently described as “wacky” with the exceptions of Szohr and Edens, whom we know little about. Shailene Woodley has long been publicly described as a “forest nymph.” Danica Patrick is very into crystals. Olivia Munn’s relationship with John Mulaney is batty. Blu of Earth’s last Instagram post talks about how her last podcast guest is her “cosmic brother for life,” and that kind of language is tame for her. Are Szohr and Edens wacky? Hard to say, but the association is troubling for them if they want to avoid that label. Szohr is from Wisconsin, and is a Packers fan. Which doesn’t mean she isn’t wacky but does create a subcategory here which could be friendly to Edens as well. “Aaron Rodgers: He only dates the eccentric and Packers fans.”
Third, people get really excited when Aaron Rodgers goes on dates with swimsuit models. There are a lot of Packers fans in the online archives who reacted to the Henderson and Rohrbach (and Erin Andrews, though she’s not a swimsuit model) rumors with “Oh thank god.” Packers fans desperately want Aaron Rodgers to be normal enough to not do something like chewing a Peyote button on the sideline during a playoff game.
It’s a weird list, but it kind of distills the Aaron Rodgers experience, which is that he’s always oscillating between idiosyncrasy and the mainstream. Remember when he was hosting Jeopardy? He looked pretty normal up there. We can only hope he stays on the normal side for the next thirteen months.
