NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is ready to step off the football field and into fatherhood as he plots his next moves after football.
The former Super Bowl winner, 42, is heading into his 22nd and final season in the NFL, reuniting with former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He revealed that talks with his mysterious wife Brittani walked him back from the brink of retirement this year – but insists he really will quit the game for good after the 2026 campaign.
And he has now shared that he believes his life will look very different this time next year as he looks to swap footballs for diapers.
‘I’m hoping that I have a pregnant wife by next [year] this time,’ he told Adam Schein on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio.
Rodgers’ wife Brittani has remained one of the NFL’s greatest mysteries with her identity still unknown over 12 months on from their secret wedding.
NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers shared that he hopes to become a father next year
The former Super Bowl winner, 42, is heading into his final season in the NFL
He first revealed in June last year that he had been married for ‘a couple of months’, placing the wedding in around March or April 2025, but he was scant on details.
Rodgers declined to name who he married, although he said in a December 2024 episode of the Pat McAfee Show that he was dating someone named Brittani, who was a ‘private person,’ at the time.
He has never been seen in public with his wife, who remains one of the NFL’s biggest mysteries, with even his teammates and their partners describing her as a ‘phantom.’
And it appears that Rodgers will become just as much of a phantom as his wife in his post-NFL life.
‘I’m hopefully going to be supporting my pregnant wife because we’re going to start a family and I am not going to be making a lot of appearances or statements,’ he added to Schein.
‘And I’m looking forward to a life of quiet after 22 years in the pros and three in college and getting my body healed up and working on a family. That’s what I’m looking forward to.’
Rodgers stunned fans earlier this year when he reunited with his family, including his parents, following a near-decade-long estrangement.
The reconciliation came after years of public distance between Rodgers and his family. The turning point began in 2023 when Rodgers reconnected with his father, Ed, at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe for the first time in nearly nine years.
The Steelers star reunited with members of his family after a period of estrangement
The 42-year-old was seen tinkering with children’s toys for his brother Luke’s two children
His younger brother Jordan and his wife – JoJo Fletcher – did not feature in any of the pictures
Earlier this year in April, Rodgers invited his parents to attend his induction into the Pleasant Valley High School Hall of Fame.
In July, Rodgers shared photos on Instagram documenting a ‘bonding week’ in Nashville with his family, including his mother Darla, father Ed, brother Luke, niece Evie and nephew Jack.
Rodgers credited the reunion and growing closer to his niece and nephew for his growing excitement over starting a family.
‘I’m definitely excited about it,’ he said of becoming a father. ‘I mean, being back in my family’s lives and I’m having a lot of fun being Uncle Aaron.
‘I have a few godkids that I’m involved with, but being Uncle Aaron to my brother’s kids has been a lot of fun. And the more I’m around them, the more I get excited and so does the wife about having some of our own. So, yeah, I’m excited for that.
‘I can’t wait for that next chapter of life and all that that entails, and sleepless nights and crying babies and changing diapers and all those things. I’m looking forward to all of it.’
