Cal Sports Report

Aaron Rodgers Says Use of Psychedelic Helped Him Earn Recent MVPs

Former Cal quarterback's experience with ayahuasca is not a violation of NFL policy, ESPN reports

Jake Curtis

Former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers grew up in Chico, Calif., and plays pro football in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but it seems some of Berkeley’s experimental culture may have rubbed off on him based on his recent revelation.

Rodgers revealed in a podcast this week that his experience with the plant-based psychedelic drug ayahuasca in Peru helped him to his best NFL seasons, which resulted in MVP awards in 2020 and 2021.

--Update: ESPN reported on Monday (August 8) that Rodgers' use of ayahuacsa did not violate  NFL drug policy. See details at the end of this story.--

"I don't think it's a coincidence," Rodgers said during the Aubrey Marcus Podcast on Wednesday. "I really don't. I don't really believe in coincidences at this point. It's the universe bringing things to happen when they're supposed to happen."

Rodgers said his trip to Peru occurred just before COVID limited travel in 2020.

“I’ve told this story about my trip to Peru and getting back into the country, 'Argo' style,” Rodgers said in the podcast, “literally taking off a half hour before the entire country shut down as it was March 8th, 2020, right before the pandemic hit.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Rodgers discussed what the experience with ayahuasca did for him.

"To me one of the core tenets of mental health is self-love and that's what ayahuasca did for me," he said.

He later expanded on the effect.

“I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling a hundred different hands on my body, imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life, from what seemed to be my ancestors,” he said.

It’s easy to see why Rodgers credited this experience with his success in 2020 and 2021. His 2018 and 2019 seasons were decent, but not up to Rodgers’ standards, and there were suspicions that his career was on the decline. But after the trip to South American, he had perhaps the two best regular seasons of his career at the age of 37 and 38, winning the MVP convincingly both years.

What is ayahuasca? Here is what USA Today reported:

Ayahuasca, a brown-reddish drink with a strong taste and smell, contains the active chemical dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.

The Drug Enforcement Administration classified DMT as a hallucinogen, and it is associated with religious practices and rituals in South America.

The herbal drink is usually made from bark of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush, according to the National Library of Medicine National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Nicknames include Huasca, yage, Kamarampi, Huni, brew, daime, the tea, and la purge, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.

Ayahuasca has no approved medical use in the U.S. and is considered a Schedule I drug. Marijuana, heroin, LSD, and ecstasy are among other Schedule I drugs.

The use of psychedelic drugs, even in medical settings, is illegal in the United States. But Oregon voted to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in 2020 and could become the first state with legal mushroom access as soon as this year, The Oregonian reported.

DMT also is listed among the NFL's banned substances. NFL players are blood tested at random during training camp and throughout the season and playoffs. Rodgers said he used ayahuasca prior to the 2020 season on a trip to Peru with his ex-girlfriend Danica Patrick.

Some medical experts, citing clinical research, say there can be benefits to using ayahuasca in the proper quantity and in a safe setting. But they said it can also be dangerous.

Peter King says much more about this in his "Football Mornings in America' after interviewing Rodgers on the subject.

Here is a brief excerpt from King's reporting:

I asked about his fraught and estranged relationship with his family in California, and whether that might now get fixed.

“Honestly, that was a big intention I brought into the second journey this offseason,” he said. “I really felt like I wanted to surrender and open up to the medicine for some healing to come through and some direction on how to kind of go about that. And it didn’t. It didn’t necessarily. The big message was unconditionally loving myself is the key to being able to heal all relationships—with them, past relationships with lovers, whatever it might be…So that gives me a lot of hope in healing at some point. There was nothing specific that came through in my three nights of journey, per se, but it was everything to learn how to love myself better because every relationship is changed from that standpoint. Including the way I look at them [family members] and the hope I have for reconciliation at some point.”

As noted above, Rodgers' use of ayahuaska did not violate NFL drug policy. Here is an excerpt from the ESPN report:

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Monday that it wouldn't have triggered a positive test result on either the substance abuse or performance-enhancing substance policies collectively bargained by the NFL and its players' association.

Earlier Monday, Packers coach Matt LaFleur was asked whether he was concerned the league might discipline Rodgers, and LaFleur said: "I really haven't given it much thought at all."

Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Samantha Madar, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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