The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers are preparing to meet in a highly anticipated matchup in Week Eight of the 2025 NFL season. This showdown, of course, is a highly anticipated one, with Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers facing his former team for the first time. As fans well remember, Rodgers spent the first 18 years of his NFL career in Green Bay, 15 of which were as the team’s starting quarterback.
During that time, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer won four NFL MVP Awards, led the Packers to victory in Super Bowl XLV, and cemented his stature as one of the best quarterbacks in league history.
At one time, Rodgers was convinced that he would spend the entirety of his career with the Packers, but those dreams were dashed when Green Bay selected Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Aaron Rodgers plans to retire with the Green Bay Packers
Sep 28, 2025; Dublin, Ireland; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) directs a play during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings during an NFL International Series game at Croke Park. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
After the selection of Love in 2020, Rodgers went on to win the next two NFL MVP Awards, but nothing he did on the field, or off of it, would change the direction Green Bay had chosen. Following the 2022 season, one in which Rodgers played arguably the worst football of his career, the Packers decided it was time to hand the reins of the offense over to Love.
Rodgers, of course, was traded to the New York Jets and, after two tumultuous years in the Big Apple, signed as a free agent with the Steelers.
As mentioned, this week’s matchup between Green Bay and Pittsburgh is the first game Rodgers will play against his former team, the team that gave him his start in the NFL, and the team with whom he plans to retire when the time comes.
He recently told Packers beat writers, “Feel so good about my time there because damn near everything great in my life is because of my football career. And my football career starts, and will end one day, with Green Bay. So got a lot of love for all those memories.”
In the past, Rodgers has said he is not certain he sees the point in signing a one-day contract to retire with the Packers. However, it certainly sounds like he has changed his tune.
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