Name: Aaron Rodgers on His Achilles Injury
Uploaded: 2024-02-07T18:21:27.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Aaron Rodgers on His Achilles Injury' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Aaron Rodgers on His Achilles Injury' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-07. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan Experience.
So you are how many months out since your injury?
Almost five.
Yeah, my wife was just here and we were talking about how we went to see your
game.
We set it up.
We're going to go see Aaron play.
He's going to be playing the Cowboys in Dallas.
Let's go.
We got all pumped up.
And four plays later.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How is it now?
It feels good.
It feels good.
I can do everything except sprint at a top speed.
So the cool thing is I really attacked the rehab the first few months and kind
of wanted
to go as hard as I could for two months to see where I was at and also see
where the team
was at because my goal was to come back.
Nobody has come back really quick from that injury.
Most of the time when it happens, especially during the season, there's no need
to push
a rehab because it happened the first week of the season.
I said, you know, let's push this as hard as I can and see if I can come back
in December
at some point.
So I kind of in my mind had circled Christmas Eve, which would have been 14
weeks post surgery.
And yeah, I worked really, really hard.
I had a great surgeon who did a newer process where they kind of attach, anchor
the sutures
through the tendon back into your heel.
So it allows you to get on your feet quicker.
Um, I did a lot of, you know, uh, other things to, uh, speed up the rehab.
I did hyperbaric chamber, uh, work with, uh, Brigham and ways to well, but, you
know, I know
you're very good friends with, and so I'm on the podcast here and he's amazing.
Um, I did some stem cells, did, uh, uh, you know, full-time rehab, uh, up to
eight hours
a day with, uh, you know, incredible spot in LA and also at home doing extra
stuff.
Uh, my diet was rock solid, um, a lot of bone broth, um, to increase the
collagen levels,
uh, to increase healing.
And so I felt, you know, I felt really, really good.
I made it back on the practice field, um, at 11 weeks.
Um, the way the NFL works with the IR, you can, uh, have a three-week window
before they
got to make a decision.
So they designate you to return.
You have three weeks before you get activated.
So I was hoping we'd win those three games.
I could come back.
Now, I couldn't sprint and still can't at top speed, but I felt like there's
been times
in my career where I played in a small circle and could have been able to be
effective.
Uh, that didn't happen.
Uh, and so they, uh, didn't, they activated me to the roster.
I just got to practice, um, but I didn't get to play, but, uh, I feel good.
You know, it was, I had a lot of things working against me, my age being the
biggest one,
but, uh, I learned a lot about, a lot more about health, uh, which I'm sure
people will
love to hear about.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, if you follow like a ways to well protocol, you can pretty
radically speed
up recovery for injuries, you know?
Um, and what's interesting is that there's stuff that you can do that you didn't
do because
it's not allowed, which is, you know, very admirable on your part, but I would,
I would
have, I would have done it.
I would have done everything.
Like, let's go.
I would have gone the full Conor McGregor route.
But, um, when you do, how do they determine whether or not you are fully here?
Do they do an MRI and check the tissue and yeah, we're doing the ultrasounds
actually for a while
just to see what type of blood flow we're getting to the area.
Um, we didn't actually do another MRI.
If I had been, uh, activated with the intent to play, I think just for safety
for everybody,
we probably would have done another MRI just to see the integrity, structural
integrity of
the tendon.
Um, but really it was about how I felt, you know, and I was able to, to do all
the quarterback
stuff, um, move in the pocket, um, throw, uh, step into my foot.
I could actually, you know, jog to slightly faster than a jog to move and throw,
um, all
things I kind of showed in practice the last few weeks.
What happens over that?
If you speed it up a little, do you just feel pain?
Do you feel like, so I don't have the explosion.
I don't have the ability to kind of, um, get up on my toe.
The, the biggest, uh, hurdle was just single leg calf strength, like being able
to, from
a standing position, shift my weight onto the single leg and do a heel raise.
Um, that, that's how, you know, you're ready to run because you run on your
athletes play
on their toes, you know?
So I need to be able to do that.
Now I could get around that by subtle movements in the pocket, but there was
multiple times
throughout my career where I had lower leg injuries in 14 and 18, especially
where I
was able to play in a small circle and 14, I ripped my calf up pretty bad and
was able
to kind of play in the shotgun and the pistol, um, for a stretch of time and be
effective.
And 18, I banged my knee up on the, uh, second drive of the game, uh, you know,
tore my MCL
had a, um, uh, you know, uh, uh, fracture on the lateral side and was able to
play, uh, for
a while, uh, in mostly in the shotgun until that healed up.
But so I knew I could do it.
I wanted to show I could play under center, which I did, uh, in practice, but,
um, you
know, we just were out of it.
So, so I didn't come back.
Well, it seems like it's the smartest move at your age to make sure it's a
hundred percent
like, like I've seen a lot of athletes come back, particularly from ACL
injuries with fighters.
They come back too soon and pops again.
Yeah, I, I, I totally agree with that on, on many levels, but then there's the
competitor
part where I see that, uh, that window closing and, um, there's not many guys
who've been,
who've played as long as I have.
There's a few, obviously Tom did it for a long time, but you know, there's kind
of an age
where father time is, is winning.
And I know that, you know, I'm, I'm on the last couple of holes of my career,
so I didn't
want to miss an entire season.
Are you 36 now?
I'm 40.
40.
Thank you though.
You look 36.