Getty Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers warms up before a game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on October 17, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.
Aaron Rodgers revisited his championship belt celebration in Week 6 against the Chicago Bears after rushing for a fourth-quarter touchdown that sealed the Green Bay Packers’ victory, but he wasn’t the first player to bust out his signature move on the afternoon.
Bears outside linebacker Robert Quinn had also celebrated with the belt … while standing over Rodgers after sacking him in the first quarter.
For what it’s worth, though, Rodgers has no hard feelings about it when it comes to a guy like Quinn, not that he even saw him do it in the first place.
“I didn’t see it, and I actually like Robert,” Rodgers said with a smile when asked whether he drew any additional motivation from Quinn borrowing his celebration. “I have a lot of respect for him, so no problem with that at all.”
Robert Quinn, I suggest you never do this again
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Quinn Has Mimicked Rodgers’ Celebration Before
Quinn has spent quite a bit of time on the same field as Rodgers despite only just arriving in Chicago last season. He faced him three times early in his career when he was a member of the St. Louis Rams, then once each during his stints with the Miami Dolphins (2018) and Dallas Cowboys (2019). That’s eight total career matchups against Rodgers and the Packers counting his three for the Bears, in which Quinn has tallied a combined 4.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits against the three-time NFL MVP.
It also gave Quinn plenty of opportunities to rip off Rodgers’ notorious belt celebration, which he did for the first during the Packers’ 2018 matchup against Miami after putting a move on David Bakhtiari and getting through to Rodgers for a third-down sack.
The brutal reality for Quinn, though, is that he has never seen his team come away with a victory even once through eight career matchups with Rodgers. The Dolphins managed to pull within two points of the Packers following his sack celebration in 2018, but Rodgers helped the Packers score 17 unanswered points down the stretch and sent Quinn’s team back to Miami with a 31-12 defeat.
Quinn should get at least one more shot at spoiling Rodgers’ fun when the Packers host the Bears for Sunday Night Football on December 12. While the Bears have their issues to sort out before then, Quinn has already recorded 5.5 sacks through the first six games and should once again prove to be a formidable pass-rushing adversary for Rodgers as long as injuries don’t interfere with either of them.
Mocking Rodgers’ Belt Celebration Has Been a Curse
Quinn is far from the only player to mock Rodgers’ belt celebration and finished with the wrong type of outcome.
Former Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles mocked it during one of his three trips to the end zone against the Packers during their 2015 matchup, but Kansas City ended up losing the game 38-28 and Rodgers used the moment in the postgame to push his sponsorship with State Farm, which had been running the “Discount Double Check” commercials for a few years.
During his rookie season for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2019, defensive end Maxx Crosby also made the mistake of mocking the belt after sacking Rodgers in the first quarter. Rodgers then proceeded to dominate his team and go untouched for the remainder of the game, finishing with 429 passing yards and five touchdown passes in the 42-24 victory.
Charles and Crosby were also the lucky ones. Others have mocked the belt and quite literally felt the pain. Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch attempted to mock Rodgers’ belt celebration when they played each other early in the 2014 season and tore his ACL in the process, costing him the rest of the year.
“I’m aware that it hasn’t always ended well for guys who mock the belt,” Rodgers wrote in response to a fan question during a Reddit AMA in 2019. “Celebrations are meant to be fun, and I don’t mind it, but it hasn’t always worked out well.”