As the New Year begins, the Aaron Rodgers gay rumors has been fervently denied by the athlete.

During his weekly radio show on 540 AM ESPN Radio in Wisconsin, Aaron Rodgers emphasized his denial of the gay rumors.

"I'm just going to say I'm not gay," said Rodgers. "I Really, really like women. That's all I can really say about that."

The gay rumors began when The Fame Driven published a gossip piece on a potential relationship between Aaron Rodgers and his longtime personal assistant, Kevin Lanflisi.

"There isn't a whole lot of separation from your public and private life," Rodgers said on Tuesday.

"You always have to be on at times. Occasionally people will get upset if you say 'no' to a picture when you're eating dinner or something. That's kind of the hard part. Or if you get crazy rumors that swirl around you from time to time that are just silly."

And while Rodgers may have shut down the gay rumors, others feel that both the media coverage and the star QB's insistence on his heterosexuality are reasons why it is so difficult for gay athletes to come out.

"The number of things that Aaron Rodgers could have been accused of by a random website that he wouldn't have felt compelled to comment on are too numerous to list. But this, this he felt like he had to clarify. In a chest-thumping, lookit, lookit, way. This had to be dealt with," wrote Sport on Earth contributor Will Leitch.

"Rodgers, depressingly, might have handled this exactly right. In an age of Jason Collins not finding a job and gay rumors potentially blackballing an NFL player from the league, it feels even riskier for an athlete to be out today than it did two years ago. The anticipation and the speculation has led to a backlash. The calls for sports to open up are making them more tight-knit and closed. People keep saying it's getting better in professional sports. I'm not seeing it."