Green Bay Packers

U.S. Women's National Team legend Abby Wambach is distancing herself from a health company supported by Brett Favre ... after finding out the business has been accused of being involved in the massive Mississippi welfare funds scandal.

ESPN reports Wambach -- a member of the sports advisory board for Odyssey Health -- had her mentions on the company's website scrubbed Thursday afternoon ... after hearing that a lawsuit filed by the state of Mississippi alleged $2.1 million intended for welfare recipients was directed to the health company instead.

Odyssey Health is a drug company developing a nasal spray to treat concussions ... and Favre is reportedly its biggest investor. Kurt Warner, Mark Rypien, David Ross and Steve Mariucci are also members of the org.'s sports advisory board.

Wambach explained her decision to walk away in an email Thursday to ESPN ... saying, "Minutes after learning this new information, I initiated the process to immediately and fully divest myself from any involvement -- financial and otherwise -- with Prevacus/Odyssey Health Inc."

"A process that I insisted be complete by end of day today."

Wambach added she "genuinely believed this company was being transparent about a product that could spare the next generation of athletes from the severe impact of concussion injuries that I endured as a professional athlete."

"I am profoundly angry, disappointed, and saddened by what I learned today."

Wambach's decision to fully divest from the drug company comes on the heels of more troubling allegations for Favre ... whose charity, Favre 4 Hope, is under fire for donating money meant for children and cancer patients to USM's athletic foundation between 2018-2020.

Tom Brady just gave every Buccaneers fan a heart attack -- pretending to cut off his finger while filming a video ... but don't worry, it's all fake!

TB12 made the joke while hanging out with celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni recently.

In the clip that the GOAT shared to his Instagram page, he asked Nick how to toss a knife on the cutting board for the camera.

"Just take it, and put it into the board," Nick said

Brady did just that -- but then suddenly screamed, "F***!"

The CGI is pretty good ... making it all look real -- but, Brady is just fine.

The vid is pretty ironic considering Brady is dealing with an actual finger injury in real life -- after he hit it on a play against the New Orleans Saints during their game last Sunday.

Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles, though, said Friday the guy will be all right for Sunday's game against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

All of the Packers' starting offense is now drinking the ayahuasca Kool-Aid -- at least, figuratively -- 'cause they pretended to partake in the consumption of the psychoactive tea in the end zone on Sunday night!!

Allen Lazard kicked off the celebration in the second quarter of Green Bay's game against the Bears -- after catching a touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers.

The Packers wideout pretended the ball was the infamous drink that Rodgers said earlier this year led to the "best season of my career" -- pouring it into the hands of all of his teammates.

One by one, each guy pretended to sip the drink -- and then fell over. Eventually, it got to Rodgers, who faked being shocked by it all before giving Lazard a big hug.

The two then kept the party going all night ... 'cause they went on to smash the Bears, 27-10.

Aaron Rodgers has no blind allegiance to anything ... he scorns politicians -- be them Democrats or Republicans -- who impose the way they want to live on their citizens, and that includes abortion.

Rodgers appeared on Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast, which drops Sunday, and SFGATE got a preview.

The famed QB ridicules Cali, saying "State's going to s**t, but I'm hanging on." He's especially angry at the State's COVID restrictions, saying, "I grew up in a small town, very little cases up in Chico, California, but all the small businesses? F***ing gone."

Aaron lasered in on a bill that's apparently about to be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom that would put a doctor's license in jeopardy if he/she promotes COVID "misinformation." He asked, "What standard of information."  FYI ... this is exactly the worry doctors have over vague restrictions on abortion.

Speaking of ... Aaron says, "I don't believe the government should have any control over what we do with our bodies." He went on to say, "As much as I might lean pro-life, I don't want the government to tell me I can't smoke a cigar, I can't have a drink of alcohol, I can't choose my own medical decisions. And if I'm a woman, don't f**king tell me what do."

And then the key point ... "Like whether or not I agree with what you decide to do, who cares, and the government should not have a decision that infringes upon my own personal freedoms."

Rogers agrees with Bill ... Donald Trump is like a sore loser on the football field. Bill says, "You take it like a man. You don't go, 'We won that game.' That's what Donald Trump does. We won that game. You didn't. You lose it. It happens. You lose sometimes. Be a f**king man and just own up like every other president has ever done."

Aaron gets a lot of criticism, but you gotta say ... he's a pretty consistent libertarian.

Aaron Rodgers gave a full play-by-play breakdown of what exactly happened with his vaccine controversy last year ... dishing the deets to none other than Joe Rogan.

The Packers quarterback was on the 'JRE' this week, and he drilled down on how things unfolded, through his perspective, from the start of training camp to the day he was asked if he'd been vaccinated ... and it sounds like he thinks he got a raw deal in the whole thing.

Watch ... AR explains that he's allergic to a certain part of the vaccine -- the polyethylene glycol found in both the Moderna and Pfizer jabs -- and was all set to take the Johnson & Johnson shot ... until it got pulled for causing blood clots in certain recipients.

When that was out, Aaron says he researched another alternative to protect himself -- one that involved holistic medicine, he says -- and went that route ... without getting a vaccine.

Aaron says he showed up to camp with everyone knowing what his status was -- something that was hard to miss, because he says the NFL would literally separate players both physically and symbolically ... giving out different colored wristbands to differentiate.

He also says he was appealing for a waiver with the league, but he felt he wouldn't get one -- especially when they allegedly called him a conspiracy theorist after he refuted that vaxxed people couldn't contract or spread the virus ... something we now know is possible.

Aaron says he eventually caught COVID -- from an already-vaccinated player, he says -- and that's when word got out officially. He says he felt it was a witch hunt environment to begin with, and when the truth came out ... Aaron says he felt betrayed by the media.

"If you're a Green Bay Packer, a lot doors open up for you. If you win a championship, all doors open up, but when you're in the Hall of Fame, football heaven opens up for you."

That's newly minted Pro Football Hall of Famer, LeRoy Butler ... who tells TMZ Sports the opportunities have been rolling in since his enshrinement in Canton.

"My assistant is getting a lot of phone calls," the 54-year-old former Packers star says, adding ... "Some of them are just to feel you out, but some of them are stuff that I always wanted to work on."

And, there's one very special project in the works.

"I'm doing a documentary that my daughters are writing about my life story."

Still, as great as the money and business opportunities are, it's not the most important part for LeRoy.

"I was very excited for my family, man. My kids. I love my kids more than myself, and they really enjoyed it."

We also talked to Butler about a comment fellow HOF'er Deion Sanders made -- where Primetime said too many players were inducted into the Hall ("the Hall of Fame ain’t the Hall of Fame no more") -- an assertion which the former Packers DB disagrees.

"See that's confusing me. I'm assuming he knows there's only 362 guys in there. And maybe 170 living. But see, when you make it first ballot, it's not that big of a deal," LeRoy said, alluding to the fact that Sanders was an absolute lock to be inducted.

Butler says it's different "when you have to wait 16 years."

The Hall of Fame was the last unchecked box in what was a historic career for LeRoy. The Super Bowl 31 champ was a 4x first-team All-Pro who was named to the NFL's 1990s All-Decade squad.

Aaron Rodgers is going all-in on his Nicolas Cage obsession -- the superstar quarterback now has a bust of the actor's head in his locker ... and he showed it off to reporters on Tuesday.

38-year-old Rodgers was all smiles as he brought the Cage head down from the top shelf of his changing space to give a closer look ... chatting it up as folks in the crowd got their jokes off.

Some said the bust doesn't really resemble Cage ... but we gotta admit -- it looks pretty spot-on. Another joked there was a camera inside it ... and uh, yeah. Let's hope not??

The 4-time MVP's been really leaning into his inner Nicky C recently -- as we previously reported, he even showed up to Packers training camp fully dressed as the Cameron Poe character from "Con Air."

It's clear Rodgers is having a lot more fun at the start of this season -- something he says was a result of his use of the psychedelic ayahuasca two years ago.

Aaron Rodgers gave a group of kids from the Washington County Boys & Girls Club the experience of a lifetime yesterday ... surprising them with some facetime while on a tour of iconic Lambeau Field!

The Green Bay Packers star QB was in the building, as he gears up for his 18th NFL season, when he ran into a group of about 20 kids who were soaking up the sights of historic Lambeau.

That's when the tour took an awesome turn for the kids. Rodgers, who was leaving the locker room, emerged and asked, “Does anyone know which locker is Aaron Rodgers?” ... as the youngers looked at him in disbelief.

Aaron stopped and posed for a group photo with the kids ... and dished out a few high fives to the little ones.

It's not uncommon for groups to run into Packers players during the tour (the tour route takes you by the locker room), but tour participants never know who, if anyone, they may see.

It just so happened to be perfect timing for the B&G Club ... because they got some facetime with a future 1st ballot Hall of Famer.

Aaron Rodgers wanted no parts of crass jokes about COVID-19, vaccines, and the deaths associated with the virus ... shutting down the attempts at humor in a hurry this week.

Rodgers appeared on Monday's episode of Barstool Sports' "Pardon My Take" -- and he was having a blast with the hosts of the show, Big Cat and PFT Commenter ... but the Packers star got serious quickly when the quips turned toward coronavirus-related deaths.

As Rodgers was speaking about the backlash he received for going public with his vaccine stance last year -- PFT joked, "How many people do you think you killed? What's your count?"

Big Cat added on, "How many grandmothers? Let's just do grandmothers."

Rodgers, who had been in a very playful mood the entire interview leading up to that point, said sternly, "I mean, I know you guys are f***ing around, but I don't find that part funny."

"I really don't," he added.

The trio changed topics moments later -- and the guys went on to laugh and joke with each other for another half an hour or so on the show.

There didn't appear to be any further awkward moments between the guys, and all three took a pic together following the conclusion of the interview.

The 38-year-old has been willing to discuss his thoughts on COVID and the vaccines repeatedly throughout the last 12 months ... and has said that while he's not anti-vax, he doesn't feel like anyone should have to be forced to take the shots.

Roger Goodell could be on Aaron Rodgers' Line 1 very soon ... 'cause Shannon Sharpe says he expects the NFL commish to call the Packers star after the QB admitted to using psychedelics earlier this week.

"I'm sure the NFL is probably going to give him a call and say, 'That's not a good look,'" the Hall of Fame tight end said Thursday.

If you missed it, Rodgers said on the most recent episode of the "Aubrey Marcus Podcast" that if he hadn't had a psychedelic experience in South America after ingesting the ayahuasca plant -- which contains DMT -- he might not have won the NFL's MVP award the past two seasons.

Rodgers raved over the plant brew's psychoactive effects ... saying he "had a magical experience" that helped lead him to become a better person and football player.

Sharpe says he has no issues with Rodgers' trip -- though he told us out at LAX he's fairly confident the NFL probably ain't feeling the same way.

"I don't know the NFL is too happy about him taking hallucinogenics," Sharpe said ... before adding, "I'm sure the commissioner is going to reach out and have a conversation with him."

Sharpe says it's unclear to him if the NFL could ultimately punish Rodgers over it all.

But, again, the former Broncos star reiterated he's glad it all worked out for A-Rodge.

Aaron Rodgers says the secret to his recent NFL dominance is a psychedelic experience in South America ... claiming the ayahuasca plant helped him improve his mental health and have the "best season of my career."

Ayahuasca -- which contains DMT -- has been used socially and medically for centuries ... and some consumers credit the plant brew for spiritual healing.

The Super Bowl champ says it's not a "coincidence" he returned from South America and won his next two MVP awards in 2020 and 2021 ... and is speaking out to change the negative stereotypes around using ayahuasca.

"I think there's so many myths and rumors about it," Rodgers said on the "Aubrey Marcus Podcast."

"The fear around it is, you're going to s*** yourself, it's just a big throw-up fest ... but the negative framework of it is that is the experience, not the deep and meaningful and crazy mind-expanding possibilities and also deep self-love and healing that can happen on the other side."

Rodgers says his intention for the first experience was to find out what pure love feels like ... and it worked.

"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 added.

38-year-old Rodgers says a previous experience with mushrooms led him to try ayahuasca ... and because he did, he has a new perspective on life.

Aaron Rodgers believes it is possible to make amends with his estranged family one day ... saying he's truly grateful for his upbringing and holds no resentment over how things played out.

The Green Bay Packers superstar had a messy falling out with his parents and two brothers several years ago ... and his separation from the family was famously covered during Jordan's appearance on "The Bachelorette" in 2016, despite the cause of the rift remaining a mystery.

Rodgers is now opening up about where things stand with his fam ... and he says the relationship is not permanently severed.

"I do believe in healing and I believe in the possibility of reconciliation at some point," Rodgers said on the "Aubrey Marcus Podcast" this week. "But, it's a different journey for all of us, and to judge on the outside about what should be or what it should look like, or who's wrong or who's right is just a game I've never wanted to play and still don't want to play."

"The most important thing for me is deep love and gratitude for them, and for the lessons I learned, and for the way I was raised, and hope for the future," he added.

"But, who knows what that future is gonna look like, when it's gonna look like, when time is gonna come."

"But, I have no bitterness in my heart. I have no resentment," Rodgers continued. "I just have deep love and appreciation for the lessons that I learned, and the fact that if I hadn't been raised that way -- all the good and all the frustrating -- there's no way I'd be sitting here today."

While Rodgers had previously stated he spent time "with my folks" for his birthday in 2018, it was reported as recently as January 2022 that he still does not speak with his family.

Aaron Rodgers made quite the entrance at Packers camp on Tuesday ... strollin' into the building looking exactly like Nicolas Cage's character in "Con Air!!"

Check out video of A-Rodge heading into the Green Bay facility to begin his 18th season in the NFL -- dude was a clone of Cameron Poe.

The 38-year-old rocked long hair, a white tank top and blue jeans ... just like Cage in the 1997 action thriller.

And, yes, this all did appear to be planned ... 'cause Rodgers used famous quotes from the flick when throwing up pics of his Day 1 'fit on his Instagram.

"#greatestactorofalltime," Rodgers said. "What do you think I'm gonna do? I'm gonna save the f***in' day! #cameronpoe #day1 #year18"

Of course, Rodgers has been known to cause stirs with his training camp attire -- just last year, he headed into practice wearing a "The Office" t-shirt and some sick shades.

That look eventually led to one of Rodgers' best career seasons -- can the "Con Air" copy come through similarly?

A cop forcefully grabbed Green Bay Packers star AJ Dillon and shoved him in the back during a soccer game at Lambeau Field this weekend ... and now, police say they've launched an internal review into the matter.

The incident happened on Saturday -- when during a weather delay at the Manchester City vs. FC Bayern match, Dillon hopped down onto the field in order to rile up fans in attendance.

According to Dillon, two security guards gave him permission to be on the field, and even helped him get down from his seat "so I could do a lambeau leap and hype up the crowd."

But, videos show one cop apparently didn't get that message -- and got physical with the tailback as he was preparing to jump over the wall behind one of the end zones.

The cop eventually let go of the 24-year-old -- who later said despite the aggressive nature of the interaction, he wasn't upset about it at all.

"Just miscommunication between parties," Dillon wrote on his Twitter page on Sunday. "The @GBPolice are great people and I’m glad we have them down there for our games to keep us safe. Standing there in the pouring rain with all those people it’s hard to know what’s going on with just one. All good."

A spokesperson for the Green Bay Police Dept. tells TMZ Sports ... "It is clear that there was a miscommunication between the Officer and Mr. Dillon."

"The Green Bay Police Department appreciates the perspective and supportive words from Mr. Dillon. The Green Bay Police Department Professional Standards/Internal Affairs Division has initiated a review of this incident."

Aaron Rodgers' body is no longer tattoo-free ... the quarterback just revealed he got ink put on him for the first time in his life.

The Green Bay Packers star shared photos of the new tat on Wednesday afternoon ... revealing his left forearm now features an eyeball, astrology signs, lions and much more.

Rodgers declined to get into the specifics of what the ink meant to him ... but he did say the artwork was both "deep and meaningful."

Famous artist Balazs Bercsenyi did the piece on Rodgers ... and Aaron made sure to shout him out while revealing the body art.

"Grateful for his mastery and friendship," Aaron said of Bercsenyi. "There's a deep and meaningful story and connection to absolutely each element of this art piece, and I'll share a little more about that one day."

"For now, just thankful for @balazsbercsenyi and his patience and artistry. #tattoo #astrology #theelements"

Several of Rodgers' Packers teammates are already weighing in on the new ink ... with his good buddy David Bakhtiari writing in a comment on the pics, "I hope this is a henna tattoo."

If you've got Davante Adams on your fantasy team, it might be time to sell high ... 'cause Brett Favre tells TMZ Sports he's expecting a drop-off from the wideout now that he's left Aaron Rodgers.

Favre made it clear it's no shade on Adams or Derek Carr -- the receiver's new QB in Las Vegas -- he just truly believes Rodgers made the 29-year-old that much better.

"It's just hard to shift gears," Favre said, "especially from a player as prolific as Aaron Rodgers."

Adams was a stat monster in Green Bay, particularly this past season ... when he caught 123 balls for 1,553 yards and 11 TDs.

Favre, though, is expecting that to change in 2022-23 after he was traded to the Raiders ... telling us, "I'd be shocked if he had the same year."

"I think Derek Carr is a very good quarterback," Brett said. "But, he's not in Aaron's league yet. May never be. And, that's no disrespect."

As for how Rodgers will fare without Adams ... Favre clearly believes it won't impact the future Hall of Famer too much.