'Nothing but love': What Aaron Rodgers had to say ahead of his 1st matchup vs. the Packers

GREEN BAY — Aaron Rodgers’ 18-year career with the Green Bay Packers is over.

He’s leavin’ on a New York Jets plane, and after Packers team president/CEO Mark Murphy’s comments at the annual WIAA girls state high school basketball tournament — where Murphy referred to Rodgers’ time with the Packers in the past tense and spoke of how Rodgers will be “in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he’ll be in our Hall of Fame” and vowed that the Packers “will bring him back and retire his number” — who knows when he'll be back again.

Packers 21, Bears 14 — 2010 NFC Championship Game Jan. 23, 2011 

With a berth in the Super Bowl on the line, Rodgers’ stat line against the Bears — 17 of 30 for 244 yards with no touchdown passes and two interceptions for a 55.4 passer rating — was hardly championship caliber. It was Dom Capers’ defense (and the Bears having to play third-string quarterback Caleb Hanie) that carried the Packers to the NFC title that day at Soldier Field, but Rodgers made two memorable plays that day: A 1-yard touchdown run for the Packers’ first points, and a shoestring tackle of Bears inside linebacker Brian Urlacher to prevent the future Pro Football Hall of Famer from scoring on what would’ve been a 94-yard interception return for a potentially game-changing touchdown.

Packers 30, 49ers 28 — Sept. 26, 2021

If anyone questioned whether Rodgers’ 2020 NFL MVP award — earned during the COVID-19 pandemic that forced games to be played inside empty stadiums and fueled by Rodgers’ inferno of competitive fire after the selection of would-be successor Jordan Love — was a fluke, Rodgers announced his run for reelection with his triumphant rally over the 49ers in Week 3.

Packers 26, Cowboys 21 — 2014 NFC Divisional Game — Jan. 11, 2015

It is remembered by many — particularly by Cowboys fans — as the “Dez Caught It” game. What is often forgotten is how a one-legged Rodgers willed his team to a berth in the NFC Championship Game that day at Lambeau Field.

Packers 48, Falcons 21 — 2010 NFC Divisional Playoff — Jan. 15, 2011

Growing up in Northern California, Rodgers wasn’t just a Sacramento Kings and Vlade Divac fan. He loved the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, and on Nov. 23, 1997, Jordan was in his final season with the Bulls — and Rodgers was an eighth grader sitting in the nosebleed seats at Arco Arena in Sacramento, seeing the greatest basketball player on the planet in person for the first time.

8-game winning streak — 2016 season

When Rodgers spoke to reporters at his locker on Nov. 23, 2016, he did so with his team mired in a four-game losing streak and saddled with a 4-6 record with six games to play.

Packers 38, Bears 17 — Sept. 28, 2014

“Five letters here, just for everybody out there in Packer Land,” Rodgers said Sept. 23, 2014 inside a reporter’s cramped office. “R-E-L-A-X. Relax. We’re going to be OK.”

Cowboys 37, Packers 27 — Nov. 29, 2007

Scraggly long mane flowing out the back of his helmet, his white No. 12 jersey fresh and clean, Rodgers jogged onto the Texas Stadium turf with 9 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first half after iconic quarterback Brett Favre suffered an injured right (throwing) elbow and a separated left shoulder.

Packers 27, Lions 23 — Dec. 3, 2015

Incredibly, before Rodgers scrambled around Ford Field and unleashed a 61-yard prayer that only seemed like it scraped the ceiling on its flight to the end zone, he’d never thrown a successful Hail Mary.

Cardinals 26, Packers 20 — 2015 NFC Divisional Playoff — Jan. 16, 2016

As incredible as Rodgers’ game-winner was in Detroit, he had two more impressive throws — to little-used wide receiver Jeff Janis, of all people — a few weeks later in the postseason. Only this time, he was only able to force overtime, and the Packers’ season came to yet another disappointing playoff end.

Packers 33, Bears 28 — Dec. 29, 2013

McCarthy called it “probably his finest hour as a Green Bay Packer” at the time. Rodgers couldn’t disagree.

Packers 34, Cowboys 31 — 2016 NFC Divisional Playoff — Jan. 15, 2017

Nine months after seeing it live and in person with his own eyes — and not believing what he’d just seen — Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was prepping for a 2017 regular-season rematch with the Packers and still thinking about one of the greatest throws he’d ever seen anyone make: Rodgers, rolling to his left on third-and-20, firing a how-did-he-do-that? 36-yard sideline strike to tip-toeing tight end Jared Cook, setting up Mason Crosby’s 51-yard winning field goal as time expired to send the Packers to the NFC Championship Game and the Cowboys into the offseason.

Packers 31, Steelers 25 — Super Bowl XLV — Feb. 6, 2011

In the most important game of his young career, Rodgers was at his absolute best. Three years removed from the organization turning the team over to Rodgers and parting ways with Favre, the Super Bowl-winning, multi-MVP predecessor — sound familiar? — who had a messy divorce with the organization to do so, Rodgers delivered a tour de force performance on the NFL’s biggest stage.