Celebs Who Can't Stand Aaron Rodgers

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Aaron Rodgers' shady side has earned him a legion of enemies. From his controversial comments about vaccines to his friendship with Joe Rogan and his questionable behavior towards fellow athletes (remember when he gave Travis Kelce quite the shady nickname?), the star sportsman has been known to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Despite being a talented football pro who is a four-time NFL MVP and a Super Bowl MVP as of 2024, the Green Bay Packers alum was voted the NFL's most annoying player in a 2024 poll. But it's not just fans who dislike him. Rodgers has also received plenty of animosity from fellow players, like Ndamukong Suh who proudly told "Club Shay Shay" in 2021, "I'm going to always want to piss off Aaron and make him not want to be my friend on the football field." However, Suh has also praised Rodgers' gameplay and said that, ultimately, they respect one another. That's not the case for many of the quarterback's other critics, though. Athletes, sports insiders, TV personalities, and even members of his own family have taken issue with Rodgers' behavior — both on and off the field. Here are the celebs who can't stand Aaron Rodgers and aren't afraid to let the world know it.

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In what has been one of Aaron Rodgers' longest running and most heated feuds, the quarterback has been trading barbs with Jimmy Kimmel for years. It started in 2021 when the late night host first criticized Rodgers for trying to conceal his COVID-19 vaccination status. (As previously noted, Rodgers' controversial stance on vaccines is no secret.) He again roasted the sports pro in 2023 after Rodgers told Pat McAfee that the media was starting to talk about UFOs as a distraction from the release of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged client list. "Might be time to revisit that concussion protocol," Kimmel quipped on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." 

Things came to a head in January 2024 when Rodgers told Pat McAfee that Kimmel's name would appear on said client list. Kimmel fired back on X, saying he had never met Epstein, a convicted pedophile, and slammed, "Your reckless words put my family in danger." The comedian even threatened to take Rodgers to court before addressing the controversy on his show. "He's mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated," Kimmel theorized. "Aaron Rodgers is too arrogant to know how ignorant he is." Since then, Kimmel has continued to make his dislike of Rodgers known, even dubbing him "Q-Aron," a play on QAnon, in March 2024.

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Aaron Rodgers' outspoken personality hasn't just bothered sports insiders and fellow celebs, it's also made enemies of his closest circle. Back in 2016, his youngest brother, Jordan Rodgers, competed on (and eventually won) JoJo Fletcher's season of "The Bachelorette." During his time on the show, Jordan revealed that Fletcher wouldn't meet Aaron because the NFL star hadn't spoken to him, their other brother, or their parents since 2014. "Me and Aaron really don't have that much of a relationship," Jordan explained, revealing the extent of their estrangement for the first time. "It's just kind of the way he's chosen to do life." Aaron didn't deny the accusations, but did say he thought it was inappropriate for Jordan to air their dirty laundry on live TV.

Jump to 2018 and the brothers' relationship had seemingly become even more hostile. When Aaron tweeted his plans to donate $1 million to help those who were displaced by the wildfire in Paradise, California, Jordan had a few choice words for his brother. In a since deleted tweet saved by The Washington Post, he slammed, "When your own Mom is home alone during the fires, car packed ready to evacuate, & you miss the fundamental first step of compassion — calling your parents to make sure they are safe — everything else just feels like an act." Not surprisingly, Aaron didn't attend Jordan's wedding to Fletcher in May 2022.

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Aaron Rodgers owes much of his career in football, as well as his Super Bowl ring, to the Green Bay Packers, which drafted him back in 2005. And yet, rather than having unfaltering respect for the franchise, he spent much of 2021 criticizing the team. Ahead of the NFL Draft that April, Rodgers made it clear he didn't want to keep playing for the Packers, butted heads with management over his contract, and went as far as to say he wanted to see general manager Brian Gutekunst fired. That lack of grace spurred Terry Bradshaw to blast Rodgers during a May 2021 appearance on WFAN's "Moose and Maggie" show. "With him being that upset shows me just how weak he is," Bradshaw said (via The Sporting News). "Go ahead and retire, see you later."

It wasn't the first time Bradshaw openly criticized Rodgers. In 2021, when Rodgers was asked if he had received a COVID-19 vaccine, he told reporters that he'd been "immunized."  However, he wasn't actually vaccinated, and he eventually became sick that November. This sparked renewed interest in his former comment, pushing "NFL on Fox" star Bradshaw to proclaim (via NBC News), "You lied to everyone." What's more, Bradshaw accused Rodgers of being selfish and not considering the wellbeing of his team. "I'm extremely disappointed in the actions of Aaron Rodgers," the Hall of Famer stated.

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The Green Bay Packers' rivalry with the Chicago Bears dates back to the 1920s and players egging each other on is nothing new. However, when Aaron Rodgers celebrated an October 2021 touchdown against the Bears by shouting, "I still own you," Bears Hall of Famer Dick Butkus wasn't impressed. Speaking on an episode of "Unfiltered with David Kaplan" (via NBC 5 Chicago), Butkus made his displeasure known, telling fans to remember Rodgers' taunt. "If I were on the field during the game, well I couldn't do it today, I'd probably get arrested," he mused. "We'll see who owns who."

Butkus is no stranger to ribbing Rodgers. When he first joined Twitter, now X, in January 2022, he told followers he wanted to get Rodgers kicked off the platform. Quips have continued to flow since, like that February when he commented on the quarterback's split from actor Shailene Woodley. "I am not the reason Shailene Woodley and @AaronRodgers12 have broken up," he joked. He's also used X to criticize Rodgers' gameplay, telling followers that August, "Boy, I hope Aaron Rodgers has figured out how to throw passes to himself because if not, Packers' games are going to look a whole lot like playing fetch with my dog."

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Rob Gronkowski is one of the greatest tight ends to ever have played in the NFL, but he's also one of the most humble. He has displayed incredible sportsmanship on the field and so, when Aaron Rodgers appeared to put the importance of personal success above his team's, Gronk had something to say about that. It was early 2023 when Pat McAfee asked Rodgers if he'd consider playing in the NFL for a 19th season. The former State Farm commercial star said he was considering it before launching into a slew of self-praises. "Can I play at a high level? Yeah, the highest," Rodgers boasted. "I think I can win MVP again in the right situation."

The following day, during an appearance on "Up & Adams," Gronkowski was asked to share his thoughts on those comments. According to him, Rodgers should have focused on a potential team victory, rather than only talking about elevating himself as a single player. "Bro, why are you thinking MVP, like, don't you want Super Bowls?" Gronk asked. He went on to add that what Rodgers should have said instead was, "I think I could win another Super Bowl."

In June 2024, Aaron Rodgers made headlines yet again, this time when he failed to show up at the New York Jets' mandatory minicamp. He reportedly had an event to attend which he thought was more important, despite the fact that skipping out came with monetary penalties. "Aaron Rodgers is subject to fines of $16,953, $33,908, and $50,855 for missing all three days of mandatory minicamp," NFL reporter Andrew Siciliano explained on X. Per USA Today, then-coach Robert Saleh tried to downplay the drama, telling reporters, "He made a decision and that's where he went." However, Super Bowl champion Shaun King saw it differently.

Stopping by the "Go Long" podcast, King first praised Rodgers' skills on the field, but didn't hold back from slamming his absence. "He's become one of the most selfish and self-centered quarterbacks of my generation," King said, noting that Rodgers should have simply rescheduled his other engagement. As he argued, Rodgers would have known the dates of the minicamp since the end of the prior season in 2023 and should have worked around them. What's more, he criticized Rodgers for not considering the fact that he was leaving his coach and team in a lurch. "You don't think these guys need those reps?" he asked. "It just was selfish of him because he's known when this date was."

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Aaron Rodgers finally left the Green Bay Packers to join the New York Jets in 2023 and he brought the drama with him to his new team. Rodgers tore his Achilles in his debut game and missed the rest of the 2023 season and yet, despite his absence, his animosity towards head coach Robert Saleh reportedly grew. The two were said to have butted heads repeatedly and when Saleh was abruptly fired in October 2024, some folks blamed Rodgers for the decision. While he denied those claims, former tight end Shannon Sharpe was quick to pin Saleh's firing on Rodgers. "Aaron Rodgers undercut this man by not coming to mandatory minicamp," he slammed on "First Take." "The moment that Aaron Rodgers did that, Robert Salah had no control," he argued, noting that the rest of the players likely lost respect for Salah when they saw how a legendary player like Rodgers was treating him. "That bad man has become more problems than he's worth," he concluded.

Sharpe previously criticized Rodgers for his refusal to follow the NFL's COVID-19 policies. While he did admit that Rodgers had talent on the field, he told GBP Daily, "He's a horrible person; he's a liar; he's arrogant; he's aloof."

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The long list of folks who dislike Aaron Rodgers includes an ever-growing lineup of sports insiders and on-air personalities. Former New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini, for example, took issue with how Rodgers treated then-coach Robert Saleh. In July 2024, just a few months before he was fired, Saleh told reporters his "instinct" was not to play Rodgers in the preseason, following the quarterback's season-long absence due to an Achilles injury. Rather than respecting that decision, Rodgers went on the record to say that he was not aware of Saleh's plan. Mangini saw that as a total lack of respect, telling "First Things First" it served no purpose other than to discredit the coach. "I don't know why he has to go out of his way to embarrass Saleh," he critiqued.

Similarly, "First Things First" host Nick Wright took Rodgers to task for repeatedly teasing a comeback in 2023, which never happened. Dubbing him "the most disingenuous athlete of my lifetime," Wright slammed Rodgers for lying about his vaccination status, retirement plans, various NFL colleagues, and more. "You're now disingenuous about your own comeback, which you were disingenuous about the entire time!" he fumed.