PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers wants to beat the Green Bay Packers, sure. But only because that's his job.
There will be nothing personal at stake for Rodgers when he stands inside Acrisure Stadium on Sunday
night and sees the team he led so successfully for so long on the other side sideline for the first time in his 21-year career.
“This is not a revenge game for me,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “I’m just excited to see some of those guys.”
And Rodgers isn't just talking about the dozen or so Packers he played alongside during the tail end of his brilliant 18-year run in Green Bay.
Asked who in the organization he keeps in touch with well over two years since he was traded to the New York Jets after the team opted to pivot to Jordan Love, Rodgers name-dropped everyone from the team photographer to its nutritionist to longtime Green Bay trainer Nate Weir.
“A lot of great relationships over there,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers simply isn't interested in feeding any sort of narrative that he's out to prove a point the way Brett Favre did in 2009, when Favre faced Rodgers and the Packers while playing for Minnesota. Favre threw for three touchdowns in his return to Lambeau Field while leading the Vikings to a late victory in what is commonly known as the “Favre Revenge Game.”
To Rodgers, wanting that sort of payback would suggest he's angry about the way things turned out. He's not. At least not anymore.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, maybe,” he said.
Yes, he would have loved to lead the Packers to another Super Bowl to bookend the one he guided them to after the 2010 season. It didn't turn out that way, despite Green Bay being a playoff fixture for most of Rodgers' tenure.
“I don’t have any animosity toward the organization,” he said. “Obviously, I wish that things would have been better in our last year there. But you know, I have a great relationship with a lot of people still in that organization."
Rodgers knew when he walked toward the tunnel at Lambeau following a stunning loss to Detroit in the 2022 regular-season finale that the franchise was ready to give the job to Love and that Love — tapped as Rodgers' heir apparent when Green Bay selected him in the first round of the 2020 draft — was ready to take over in much the same way Rodgers did for Favre in 2008.
Two eventful, if frustrating, seasons with the New York Jets followed before the now 41-year-old Rodgers signed with Pittsburgh in June.
There is a peace Rodgers seems to be playing with this season, perhaps in part because of the similarities between two of the league's most storied franchises and the cities they represent, from their tradition-rich history to their small-town feel.
Yet no matter how well this season goes, Rodgers knows nothing will ever replace Green Bay.
How could it?
“I grew up there,” he said. “I spent 18 years there.”
And he leaned into it. He name-checked the two hamlets he lived in — Suamico and Hobart — and smiled while talking about the conversations he'd have with Packers fans while out grocery shopping, a testament to the communal relationship between the NFL's only publicly-owned franchise and the players who don the green and gold.
Along the way, Rodgers built a legacy that will carry him to a gold jacket ceremony in Canton, Ohio, five years after he walks away for good, whenever that may be.
“I have nothing but love and appreciation for the fan base, for the city of Green Bay,” he said.
So no, he won't be thinking about wanting to show the Packers they moved away from him too soon. He'll be more concerned about making sure his offensive line finds a way to keep Green Bay edge rusher Micah Parsons as far away from him as possible and figuring out a way for the Steelers to bounce back from 33-31 loss to Cincinnati last week that cost them an opportunity to build a comfortable lead in the AFC North.
“I’m definitely more comfortable with what I’m doing,” said Rodgers, who has 14 touchdown passes and five interceptions. “I’m more comfortable when I’m staying clean.”
The hardest hit Rodgers took against the Bengals was from 311-pound Steelers left tackle Broderick Jones, who inadvertently tackled the decidedly smaller Rodgers while celebrating a late touchdown pass to Pat Freiermuth that briefly put Pittsburgh in front.
“I texted him to say, ‘Hey man, I love your energy. I love everything you’re about. But also I’m 41, OK?’ You can’t be out there tackling me like that," Rodgers said with a laugh.
The only caveat Rodgers offers about facing the Packers is that his emotions might be different if the Steelers were traveling to Green Bay. The scheduling gods didn't offer up that bit of theater this time around.
Rodgers will undoubtedly be back at Lambeau at some point. Perhaps to have his No. 12 jersey retired in the same way that Favre's No. 4 was a decade ago.
There was a time in his career when he wanted to be a “one-helmet” guy and never play anywhere else. Those opportunities are rare. The NFL is a business. Rodgers moved on. The Packers moved on.
Sunday night will be about the moment, not about the memories.
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