Last week, Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers emerged from his annual offseason retreat, but this time there wasn’t any ayahuasca – just DMT.
According to ESPN’s Xuan Thai, Rodgers spent days in a “partially underground, Hobbit-like structure with 300 square feet of space, devoid of light, with a queen bed, a bathroom and a meditation-like mat on the floor.”
Is Rodgers getting accustomed to living in a New York City apartment?
Jokes aside, in his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the 4x MVP said, “I’ve had a number of friends who’ve done it and had some profound experiences. It’s something that’s been on my radar for a few years now and I feel like it’d be awesome to do regardless of where I was leaning after this season, so it’s been on the calendar for months and months and months.”
For context, this Hobbit-like hut is designed for sensory deprivation. Studies show sensory deprivation allows an individual to sit alone with his/her thoughts for an extended period of time, often stimulating hallucinations very similar to the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
Rodgers scheduled his stay for 4 days but was allowed to leave at any point during the retreat.
“The door is open, so if you want to leave you can walk out the door,” said Rodgers on The Pat McAfee Show.
While many have ridiculed Rodgers for his egomaniacal character and individualistic decision-making in the past, it’s important not to knock something you haven’t tried.
On the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers made a sound point, arguing, “It’s just sitting in silence which, you know, most of us never do. We rarely even turn our phone off or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
Rodgers makes a compelling point here: judge less, research more. This is something modern society has failed to do since COVID-19 rocked our lives, and while Rodgers is far from perfect and said some things in the past that I and others disagree with, he is 100% spot-on in this case.
Many of us had an initial reaction similar to that of Pat McAfee, who said, “I’m scared… you’re not scared? I thought of me being put in one of these situations and me not being able to make it. Like, ‘Oh, ah it’s a lot of me right now. Okay, me talking to me, need to move on.’”
Like McAfee, this isolation darkness retreat full of sensory deprivation and hallucination isn’t really up my alley, but who am I to judge? Who is anyone to judge?
With that said, Rodgers has an NFL career that awaits him on the other side of his snowy Oregon cave, and maybe his isolation retreat pointed him in the right direction.
Will he go to the Jets after his brief simulation in a New York apartment, rejoin Davante Adams in Las Vegas after Derek Carr’s departure, or return to the Frozen Tundra for one last hurrah?
Find out next week on Jeopardy!
NYC apartment it is... Good call!