Aaron Rodgers‘ decision to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers sets up a date with some familiar faces.
In Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season, Rodgers’ new squad will host the Green Bay Packers, with whom the future Pro Football Hall of Famer played 18 seasons and won a Super Bowl.
His Packers replacement, Jordan Love, is looking forward to the showdown, suitably slated for prime time on Sunday, Oct. 26.
“It’s going to be fun,” Love told Chanel3000’s Jason Wilde on Friday. “It’s going to be awesome. I’m excited for it. I can’t wait to be on different sides meeting up. I know we’ll talk pregame, things like that, and then hopefully we can exchange jerseys after.”
Love, heading into his third year as Green Bay’s starter, has handled himself well taking over after the team traded Rodgers to the New York Jets. He’s thrown for 7,548 yards, 57 touchdowns and 22 interceptions while delivering the Packers to the playoffs in both his seasons under center.
He’s not yet nearly the quarterback Rodgers was in his prime for the Green and Gold, nor may he ever be, but the Packers are assuredly happy with the decision they made. Along with the multiple picks Green Bay got back for Rodgers, Love has simply paid more dividends since the 2023 forking of the road.
Rodgers tore his Achilles four snaps into his ’23 campaign with the Jets, then looked diminished last season while finishing with a 5-12 record.
The Jets moved on from him, and he ruminated for months before putting pen to paper in Pittsburgh.
“I was excited for A-Rod,” Love said. “I don’t think I was too surprised. I feel like there was a lot of rumors going on throughout the whole offseason about him going to the Steelers. I was excited for him that he’s coming back and playing. There were also rumors that he might be done, so just knowing he’s going to keep playing, that’s pretty awesome.”
Rodgers casts a long shadow in Green Bay, but Love isn’t only dealing with the expectations set by his immediate predecessor.
The Packers enjoyed 31 seasons of Hall of Fame-level QB play before handing the reins to their current signal-caller. Before Rodgers, it was Brett Favre, who also set records calling Lambeau Field home and won a Super Bowl before a contentious split led him to the Jets.
Both sagas, Green Bay going from Favre to Rodgers and then Rodgers to Love, involved the heir apparent waiting in the wings for three years as a surprise first-round pick.
Where they differ, beside Favre’s post-Gotham career playing out with the Minnesota Vikings rather than the Steelers, is the dynamic between the QBs.
While the Favre-Rodgers relationship was notoriously icy early on, Love has no complaints about the way Rodgers approached an admittedly awkward situation.
“I appreciate definitely the way A-Rod just handled being in that situation,” Love said. “I think a big part of it was, which he told me, he knows how it was for him being in the same position and things that he went through and just the way the situation might have been handled. I think his perspective was, ‘I’m trying to go about this a little bit differently,’ which I think was awesome.
“In my time with A-Rod, we had a great relationship. It was awesome being in the room with him, being able to learn. He was amazing with everything. I definitely appreciate the way he handled everything on the outside with obviously leaving and me taking over and things like that. I think he’s been great, very supportive of me, and definitely helped with some of the negativity and things like that that might come with that. A-Rod handled it like a pro and did me very, very right.”
Thanks to Favre finishing his career back in the NFC North for two years, he and Rodgers had multiple chances to square off. They went 2-2 head-to-head, although Rodgers technically got the last laugh by winning the final two contests, as well as Super Bowl XLV in Favre’s final year.
Rodgers and Love will likely only have this single meeting for bragging rights.
One will come out on top, but perhaps both will come away with an old friend’s jersey.
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