Quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have started wearing a different shape of green in 2023. But doesn’t mean he’s a fan of the Detroit Lions.
While making his weekly guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers simply said he was “not happy” when asked about his reaction to the Lions breaking their 30-year division title drought.
Apparently for the former Green Bay Packers quarterback, some old habits die hard. That includes his dislike of his former NFC North rivals.
Over the years, Lions fans had plenty of reasons to dislike Rodgers. He led the Packers to an 18-8 record while throwing for 54 touchdowns and 12 interceptions against Detroit.
In 26 games against the Lions, Rodgers posted a 105.1 quarterback rating.
Aaron Rodgers Roots for the Packers in NFC North
While Rodgers isn’t in the NFC North anymore, the 40-year-old said he still likes to see his former team experiencing success over his old division rivals.
Rodgers, though, was still complimentary of what the Lions accomplished by winning the division title this season.
“Although I’m in New York, I definitely still want the green and gold to take the north every year,” Rodgers told McAfee. “But they’ve got a good football team. Jared [Goff] had a really nice season. Obviously, [Amon-Ra] St. Brown is a fantastic receiver. They’ve got a lot of guys, two really good backs, Jahmyr [Gibbs’] had a really nice year, and always been a fan of [David] Montgomery, the way he runs the ball, his toughness.
“The Lions are really good on both sides of the ball. Defense has been playing good, so they’ve got a good football team.”
With the NFC North crown, the Lions will finish in front of the Packers for the second straight season. It’s the first time Detroit will do that in back-to-back seasons since the formation of the NFC North in 2002.
Packers Have Dominated NFC North With 2 QBs
From 1993-2022, the Lions finished with a better record than the Packers just three times. That was in large part because of the quarterback play Green Bay received over those three decades.
Rodgers and Brett Favre dominated not just the NFC North (and NFC Central) but the entire league. The two quarterbacks combined to win four MVP awards, led the Packers to 12 NFC North titles and won two Super Bowls.
The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings occasionally broke through with division titles during the Rodgers and Favre eras. But the Lions never did. A major reason for that was because the Lions rarely beat those two signal callers.
Rodgers and Favre posted a combined record of 44-17 versus the Lions. That run of success included a 24-game winning streak for the Packers at Lambeau Field from 1992-2014.
The rivalry, though, began to tilt in Detroit’s favor at the end of the Rodgers era. The Lions have won five of their past nine road meetings with the Packers. They swept the Packers in Rodgers’ final season with the team.
That sweep included a Detroit victory in Week 18 last year that eliminated the Packers from the postseason.
Since Week 18 of 2022, the Lions are 4-1 versus the Packers.
For the Lions to keep Rodgers “unhappy” and stay atop of the NFC North, Detroit will likely have to continue beating Green Bay on a regular basis.
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Aaron Rodgers Gives 2-Word Response to Lions Winning NFC North