‘The Bachelorette’ finally asks the important question: How does NFL pro Aaron Rodgers feel?

Another season of ABC’s hit reality dating show “The Bachelorette” has come and gone but not without revisiting, yet again, what an NFL quarterback may think about the entire matter. 

After 10 episodes spent weeding through a crop consisting mostly of virtually indistinguishable white men with identical haircuts, season 12 bachelorette JoJo Fletcher decided on the guy that it was clear she was going to choose from the moment he got out of the limo and swaggered up to her (or maybe before that, as Fletcher later admitted to knowing of Jordan Rodgers before appearing on the show.)

Fletcher chose Rodgers to be her theoretical future husband (while “The Bachelorette” has a higher batting average for love connections than counterpart “The Bachelor” — four, to the latter’s three — it’s not exactly a bragging point for a show purportedly peddling true love) and thereby sealed her fate that a not insignificant part of her future would be spent theorizing about the thoughts of potential future brother-in-law Aaron Rodgers.

But before fully giving ourselves over to theorizing about what Aaron Rodgers is doing right now (probably training camp) or what Aaron Rodgers is thinking about right now (probably football) or how Aaron Rodgers is feeling right now (maybe hungry and a little sleepy) let’s take a brief look at the complete trainwreck that was the process that brought JoJo Fletcher to this place.

Fletcher and Rodgers during the "After the Rose" ceremony. True love. (ABC)

The bulk of Fletcher’s time during the finale of “The Bachelorette” was spent talking about how perfect contestant Robby was, how much her family loved him, how much he loved her and how disappointed she was that Jordan wasn’t performing up to her standards. Namely, that Jordan didn’t ask her father’s permission to marry her, a vital element for Fletcher’s fairy-tale proposal which, apparently, also included a camera crew and six weeks of speed-dating.

From the outset of the season, Fletcher seemed both drawn to and repelled by Jordan. Rodgers had all the elements that Fletcher mentioned being drawn to in the past and hoping to avoid, the invariable bad boy. The problem in the finale is that Robby also had all of those elements, but was just better at hiding them. Fletcher eventually picks the person she has the most chemistry with, which is probably the right choice in the moment but almost certainly isn’t playing out the way she hoped.

In the “After the Final Rose” episode that aired immediately after the finale, Fletcher talked about the difficult times she and Jordan have already faced in the three months they’ve been together, with accusations from the tabloids that couldn’t be refuted without spoiling the season’s conclusion. 

But none of this is new or unique to contestants on “The Bachelor” franchise and the fact that Jordan and JoJo seem to be struggling with it seems much more indicative of the relative strength of their relationship than anything. More than that, she looks like she’s being held in a really fancy hostage situation.

Regardless of how long for this world JoJo and Jordan may be and whether or not JoJo choosing with her heart was the right move or not, ultimately, the entire season of “The Bachelorette” could be summed up with a single question, as posed by Chris Harrison to Jordan during the wrap-up episode: “About the rift with your brother Aaron, has anything come of that?”

It was a situation in which JoJo and Jordan could have let their faces do their talking for them.

Chris Harrison could probably have just taken JoJo’s expression as a “No.” (ABC)

(Test)

On this front, at least, JoJo and Jordan seem united. 

Jordan dances around the subject and mentions instead how he’s moving to Dallas to be with JoJo. When pressed, JoJo gives Harrison a death stare and says, “It’s not the focus for us right now,” as though willing him with her brain to stop talking.

At the end of the day, we are left with more questions than answers. Why did JoJo pick Jordan? Why did Robby choose to accessorize his suit with gingham? How did Jordan manage to pick out such a nice engagement ring? What is with JoJo’s hideous earrings? Are Jordan and JoJo meant to last a lifetime?

And yes, sadly, still, what does Aaron Rodgers think of all this?

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Twitter: @midwestspitfire

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