Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is likely to get sacked in the NFC championship Sunday, but he’s taking his hardest blows off the field — from his own family.
The 33-year-old gridiron superstar has been caught up in a bitter family feud, in which he has battled his brothers and other kin over fame, football — and especially his celebrity gal pal, Olivia Munn.
“Aaron is the one that has pulled away from the family, not the reverse,” a source told Us Weekly. “When he got together with Olivia Munn, his family told him they didn’t trust her and thought she wasn’t with him for the right reasons. That made him furious, and he ended up choosing Olivia over his family.”
According to the magazine, “The Newsroom” actress has “a strong personality and every meeting she has had with [Rodgers’ family] has gone badly.”
She even caught heat online when she tweeted a Thanksgiving message last year, and angry Green Bay fans responded by accusing Munn, 33, of keeping him from his family at the holiday.
The rift was first laid bare when Rodgers’ younger brother, Jordan, went on the reality show “The Bachelorette” last year and admitted to his new love interest that “me and Aaron don’t really have that much of a relationship. It’s just kind of the way he’s chosen to do life, and I chose to stay close with my family and my parents and my brother.”
A report this week in People magazine said the rift started with a minor disagreement that turned into a big “blow-up.”
Though it wasn’t clear how long the enmity between the brothers has been going on, the People report portrays it as the culmination of tension between Aaron — a Super Bowl MVP and two-time NFL league MVP — and Jordan, a football journeyman who was cut from three pro teams before going into college football broadcasting.
Jordan said on “The Bachelorette” that he grew up in his brother’s shadow.
“No matter what I did, it was never good enough . . . I was being compared to someone who did it the best,” he said.
“I could’ve kept playing, but football didn’t define me. Not having a great relationship with my brother Aaron . . . didn’t define me.”
Luke, the third Rodgers brother, also dished on the feud during a “Bachelorette” segment.
“It pains both of us, like, not to have that relationship [with Aaron] — we miss our brother,” he said.
Their father, Ed Rodgers, told the New York Times earlier this month, “Fame can change things.”
“It’s complicated,” he said. “We’re hoping for the best.”
Jordan’s biggest public success in life is winning “The Bachelorette” by claiming the affections of JoJo Fletcher, whom he plans to marry this year. It is not clear if Aaron will even attend the ceremony, Jordan said.
Aaron has remained tight-lipped about the estrangement. “I’m not going to speak on those things,” he said last year.