Leading up to the Sunday Night Football matchup against the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has said time and time again that this isn’t a revenge game for him, that there’s no animosity towards the Packers, with whom he spent 18 years of his eventual Hall of Fame career.
Despite that, many don’t seem to take Rodgers at his word.
They never have, to be fair, but it seems heightened in the buildup to the showdown with the Packers.
For ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum, a former NFL GM, he doesn’t believe a word of what Rodgers has said this week and thinks this matchup means a great deal to the four-time NFL MVP and future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“That is capital F fraud. I was with the Jets in 2008 when we traded for Brett Favre, who ironically was replaced by Aaron Rogers. Iconic quarterbacks are easily aggrieved,” Tannenbaum said Friday on SportsCenter, according to video via ESPN. “They are extremely sensitive. All we heard from Brett Favre is how much Green Bay made a mistake. And while Aaron Rogers is saying the right things publicly, I promise you this means everything to him.
“This is his own personal Super Bowl Sunday night.”
It’s rather fitting that Tannenbaum draws on an experience with Brett Favre to take a stance on Rodgers’ comments this week. He didn’t pay attention to Rodgers’ full media session, because Rodgers said this situation is nothing like Favre’s, where Favre was up and down about retiring or not, and then the Packers moved on from him.
With Rodgers, he could read the writing on the wall when the Packers drafted Jordan Love, and unlike Favre with him, Rodgers was a good mentor to the young quarterback. Though Rodgers never wanted to leave Green Bay, he wanted to keep playing and understood it was time to move on.
His animosity was ultimately aimed was at the New York Jets, which he was able to avenge in Week 1 of the season. Rodgers threw four touchdowns passes against the Jets, stating after the Steelers’ 34-32 win that it felt good to beat everyone in that organization.
It probably won’t be the same this time around with the Packers. Sure, this game might mean a great deal to him due to what he can achieve historically, becoming one of a few quarterbacks to beat all 32 teams in the league.
But he’s not going into this matchup looking to stick it to Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love, or anyone else. Rodgers is a measured guy, and he’s not going to say something he doesn’t mean. At some point you have to take him at his word.
We’ll see what his actions are like Sunday night under the bright lights.
