New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers claims he spotted a UFO during the fifth and final episode of HBO's training camp docuseries Hard Knocks.
Rodgers said he was staying at his former California Golden Bears teammate Steve Levy's New Jersey home in 2005 when he heard an alarm in the distance. The 39-year-old said he got up, went downstairs and went outside with Levy and his brother to check out the strange noise.
“Up in the clouds, we saw this tremendously large object moving in the sky. It was like a scene out of ‘Independence Day’ when the ships are coming into the atmosphere and creating this explosion-type fire in the sky,” Rodgers said. “We saw this incredibly large object and froze like anybody would. Eventually, it went out of sight and nobody said a word. We stood frozen, the three of us, on the front stoop of Steve’s house. About 30 seconds later, we heard the real recognizable sound of fighter jets…that seemed to be chasing this object. And again, we just stood there in disbelief for another few minutes.
“Nobody said a word. And then we all kind of looked at each other saying ‘Did we just see what we think we just saw?’”
Rodgers said he looked into the incident the following days and found zero mentions about UFO sighings, but his interest in UFO research piqued. The quarterback said the siren came from a nearby nuclear power plant where UFOs are commonly spotted, as well as volcanoes and nuclear energy.
“Steven and I – great friends, teammates, and also witnessed whatever the hell it was. I don’t know, but it was definitely flying, definitely a large object,” Rodgers added.
Rodgers was acquired by the Jets in a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers, with whom the quarterback spent the entirety of his 18-year NFL career, in April. Rodgers leads all Packers quarterbacks with 475 touchdowns and ranks second in franchise history behind only Favre in QB wins (147), completions (5,001) and passing yards (7,660).