Aaron Rodgers will be under center for the Pittsburgh Steelers this week, bringing the former Packers quarterback full circle.
Despite a contentious exit from the Packers, Rodgers has been magnanimous this week, praising the Packers and sharing plenty of anecdotes about his time in Green Bay.
Win or lose, Rodgers will become the latest in a surprisingly long list of Packers quarterbacks to start a game against the Packers after leaving Green Bay. Dating back to the Lombardi era (because, let’s be honest,
the farther back you go in football history, the less a quarterback looks like a quarterback), at least six former Packers quarterbacks have later started games against the Packers.
Brett Favre (Packers quarterback from 1992-2007)
After a year with the New York Jets, Favre joined the Minnesota Vikings and had a good year in 2009. His new team beat the Packers twice and Favre played well in both games, though the Vikings would ultimately fall short of the Super Bowl. You hate to see it, naturally.
Favre didn’t fare quite so well in 2010. He threw just one touchdown against four interceptions in two games, the latter of which was a 31-3 beatdown in Minneapolis.
Don Majkowski (Packers quarterback from 1987-1992)
Majkowski’s exit from the Packers was less contentious than either Favre or Rodgers. The writing was probably more on the wall for Majkowski than the legend really admits — I don’t think Ron Wolf traded a first round pick for Favre to have him ride the bench forever — but his exit was still unceremonious. There was no gradual transition from Majkowkski to Favre; Majkowski got hurt, and that was that.
Majkowski played four more unremarkable years in the NFL after the Packers cast him aside, and started a game against the Packers in 1996. He completed just 15 of 32 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown in a 28-18 loss.
Mike Tomczak (Packers quarterback in 1991)
Tomczak definitely wasn’t a long-tenured Packers’ quarterback; he played just a single season with the green and gold, starting just seven games. But the year after he left Green Bay, he’d face the Packers as a member of the Cleveland Browns, piloting them to a 17-6 victory under head coach Bill Belichick during the 1992 season.
Scott Hunter (Packers quarterback from 1971-73)
We’re firmly back into the Gory Years now. A sixth round pick in 1971, Hunter started for the Packers across three seasons, including 14 starts in 1972. He played with the Bills in 1974 and was out of football in 1975 before catching on with the Atlanta Falcons in 1976, starting 13 games across two seasons.
One of those games was against the Packers. Hunter completed 10 of 23 passes as the Falcons built a 20-10 lead, only to see the Packers score 14 points in the fourth quarter to steal a 24-20 win.
Don Horn (Packers quarterback from 1967-70)
Once the would-be successor to Bart Starr, Horn didn’t even outlast the man he was supposed to replace in Green Bay. Vince Lombardi selected Horn in the first round of the 1967 NFL Draft, but Horn only stuck around in Green Bay until 1970. He started six games in relief of Starr in 1969 and 1970, but new head coach Dan Devine wasn’t interested in his services in 1971, so off Horn went, catching off with the Denver Broncos.
Horn appeared in nine games for the Broncos in 1971, starting all nine. The Broncos went 2-6-1 in those nine games, including a 34-13 loss at the hands of the Packers in which Horn threw six interceptions. Arguably, he still contributed to Packers history: six interceptions is still a team record. (The Packers also recorded six interceptions in a game in 1961 and in 1999.)
Lamar McHan (Packers quarterback from 1959-60)
Here’s an interesting what-if from Packers’ history: what if Lamar McHan hadn’t had a bit of a screw loose? By many accounts from the era, he was an extremely gifted athlete and had every chance to win the Packers’ starting quarterback job in 1959 and 1960, Vince Lombardi’s first in Green Bay.
Unfortunately, McHan was a bit of a hothead. Well, probably more than a bit. You have to be more than a little bit crazy to call Vince Lombardi an ethnic slur in public while visibly intoxicated, which is allegedly (though all but assuredly) what led to his prompt departure from the Packers.
After a stint with the Baltimore Colts McHan faced the Packers twice as a member of the San Francisco 49ers in 1963. Unfortunately for McHan, the Lombardi machine was fully operational by that point. The Packers cruised to 28-10 and 21-17 victories, with McHan completing just 13 passes for 115 yards total across the two games.
