PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers knew this game might be coming five years ago.
Maybe it's why he appears to be at peace with what will be the very jarring visual of the four-time MVP standing on one side of the line of scrimmage and the team he long defined being on the other when Pittsburgh (4-2) hosts Green Bay (4-1-1) on Sunday night.
Asked this week if his first-ever meeting with the Packers was about revenge, Rodgers simply shook his head.
“What
do I got to be avenging here?” Rodgers said this week, 2 1/2 years after his remarkably successful run with Green Bay ended with a trade to the New York Jets so the Packers could hand the keys to the franchise to Jordan Love. "They made me a ton of money. I grew up there, spent some of the best years of my life there. I’ve got nothing but love for the organization.”
And nothing but love for the man who replaced him.
The moment NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Love's name near the end of the first round of the 2020 draft, Rodgers understood his time in Green Bay was on the clock.
In a perfect world, Rodgers would have guided the Packers to another Super Bowl title and headed off into the California sunset while gracefully ceding the spotlight to Love.
Yet Rodgers learned long ago that things rarely wrap up so tidily. And they didn't.
While Rodgers fended Love off for three years — a third and fourth MVP season helped — by early 2023, Love looked ready to take over, and the Packers were ready to move on. Somewhat begrudgingly, so was the quarterback who helped bring “Titletown, USA” its fourth Super Bowl.
So no, Rodgers is not bitter. If he were, why has he stayed in contact with Love since his departure? The two swapped texts last week, exchanging notes on what they've seen from common opponents. Their “student/teacher” dynamic has been replaced by something that sounds an awful lot like friendship.
“(Love is) one of the real good guys in the league,” Rodgers said. “I’m sure his leadership has continued to grow over there, but I like the way he’s playing. He’s super accurate. He’s taking care of the football. He’s been opportunistic, making great throws down the field and using his legs as well.”
All words that have been used to describe Rodgers through the years. There is a symmetry to that, and maybe that's the point. While Love was initially wary when he arrived in Green Bay, knowing his job was to eventually replace a future Hall of Famer, there was never the edginess that defined the relationship between Rodgers and Brett Favre, whom Rodgers replaced in 2008 much in the same way Love took over for him 15 years later.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for how he handled it, the way he went about me coming in and like I said before, he welcomed me with open arms," Love said.
Those arms have remained open through the years.
Yes, Rodgers is enjoying his time in Pittsburgh. Yet he knows there is only one team he will be forever associated with. And it's not the one he'll be playing for under the prime-time lights this week.
“Regardless of when I hang it up, that’s the bulk of my career," Rodgers said, “I’ll retire a Packer and see what happens after that.”
Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs has scored two touchdowns in each of his past three games. He did it despite dealing with a calf injury Sunday at Arizona and an illness that had him vomiting during a victory over the Bengals a week earlier.
The previous Packers player to have multiple touchdown runs in three straight games within the same season was Hall of Famer Jim Taylor in 1961. Now Jacobs faces a Pittsburgh defense smarting after getting pushed around on the ground and lit up in the air by Joe Flacco and company last week in Cincinnati.
“He plays with a mentality that he’s going to find a way to get it done,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “And that’s what you appreciate so much about him. But it’s not an accident."
The turf at Acrisure Stadium came under fire following Pittsburgh's victory over Cleveland earlier this month on a track that could be described as shoddy at best.
The field typically gets chewed up every season as fall gives way to winter in Western Pennsylvania. It just happened to happen a little earlier than usual. While the surface was replaced recently, Pittsburgh and Green Bay will meet just over 24 hours after the conclusion of Saturday's game between North Carolina State and the University of Pittsburgh, which also calls Acrisure Stadium home.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is more worried about the state of the field so much as what his team does while it's on it.
“I am not a grass expert,” he said. "I haven’t cut my grass in a long, long time. I coach football. I’m going to stay in my lane. I don’t even know who cuts my grass.”
Lucas Havrisik was thinking of getting a part-time job — perhaps as a substitute teacher — while he was living in Cleveland awaiting kicking opportunities from NFL teams earlier this season.
He’s now one heck of a substitute kicker.
Havrisik has gone 3 of 3 on field-goal attempts in two games with Green Bay while filling in for Brandon McManus, who is dealing with a quadriceps injury. Havrisik set a Packers record by making a 61-yard field goal at Arizona.
While McManus’ status for Sunday remains uncertain, the Packers have reason to feel good about their kicking situation whether or not he’s ready to return.
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee contributed to this report.
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