Getty Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers reacts as he walks of the field following the team's win against the Detroit Lions during an NFL football game at Lambeau Field on September 20, 2021 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Someone was bound to ask him eventually this season, right?
Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (4-1) are preparing to defend their claim over the NFC North when they visit the Chicago Bears (3-2) this weekend, but the offseason rumors that surrounded the veteran quarterback are apparently still weighing heavily on a speculative few — so much so that one reporter actually took the time to ask Rodgers: Would he ever consider playing for Packers’ biggest rival?
“No,” Rodgers said, shaking his head with a smile. “No.”
“Hard no?” the reporter followed up.
“It’s just not gonna happen, man,” Rodgers answered, looking a little incredulous.
“Could you see yourself every playing there [Chicago] when your time comes playing here?”
Aaron Rodgers:
It doesn’t take a specialist to understand why Rodgers might look that way at a reporter asking a question like that. Not only has Rodgers continually shot down speculation about his future over the past few months and maintained that his focus is on the current season but also the Packers would never trade their three-time MVP quarterback to a divisional rival.
On the other side of the equation, the Bears don’t figure to be in the market for a new starting quarterback anytime soon after moving up to select Justin Fields at No. 11 overall in the 2021 NFL draft. Even if Fields proved to not be the answer Chicago believes him to be, it will take more than one season to determine his long-term value as their starting quarterback. Don’t forget that Mitchell Trubisky played out all four years of his rookie contract with the Bears and that Fields’ rookie deal stretches through the end of the 2024 season.
But hey, at least Rodgers playing in a Bears jersey is one nightmare Packers fans can definitively rule out.
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Rodgers Does Like Playing at Soldier Field
Understandably, Rodgers has mostly enjoyed his experiences in Chicago throughout his Packers career. The Packers have won 10 of their last 11 games playing at Soldier Field, losing 24-17 during the 2018 season but otherwise not falling on the Bears’ home turf since before they were crowned Super Bowl XLV champions in February 2011.
On an individual level, Rodgers has prevailed in nine of his 12 starts in Chicago, watching the Packers win without him twice while he was on injured reserve. He has also thrown 23 career touchdown passes at Soldier Field, putting him just three away from surpassing Brett Favre’s team record of 25.
Safe to say, Rodgers gets — and respects — why Bears fans might not like him much, as he explained when talking with reporters on October 13:
I don’t think they’re extremely happy with me. They’re not very cordial most of the time, but I respect that. I respect that it’s a great sports town. They’ve got two baseball teams, a basketball team that I grew up cheering for.
For years, when we played down there, I would the night before go on a long walk and often walk to dinner … and on one of those walks, a random mom and son, even though I was all bundled up, wearing a sweatshirt because it was freezing and a winter hat and stuff and they recognized me and we walked for, I don’t know, four or five blocks together, so that was a nice change meeting. But I’ve always enjoyed the city, enjoyed the fans even though they haven’t really enjoyed me. That’s fine, I get it. Maybe there’ll be a little more love when my time comes to an end playing here, but I do have a lot of respect for the city and the sports fans they’ve got there.