The Green Bay Packers travel to western Pennsylvania to square off against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football in Week 8. The prime time matchup marks the first time the future Hall of Famer has faced his former team since departing Green Bay after the 2022 season. But Rodgers is downplaying the revenge game narrative surrounding Sunday’s clash.
His counterpart and former teammate Jordan Love struck a similar tone when discussing the Week 8 showdown.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s another game. Obviously going into this week, it’s going to be one of those very talked about matchups,” Love acknowledged, per USA Today’s Ryan Wood. “We’re not going against each other head to head, but obviously it’s going to be a fun game. We’re both competitors. We both want to come out with this win. So I’m just excited to see him,” Love said.
The Packers passed the torch to Jordan Love
“Just from my time with A-Rod and his time with the Packers it’s going to be hyped up. But at the end of the day it’s another game. I'm going against the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense and he’s going against the Green Bay Packers’ defense,” Love added.
Rodgers spent 18 seasons in Green Bay, winning Super Bowl XLV with the team and collecting four MVP Awards, four first-team All-Pro honors and 10 Pro Bowl nods.
Despite winning league MVP in 2020 (and again the following season), the Packers traded up to select Love 26th overall in the 2020 draft. The move came as a surprise and bore a striking resemblance to Green Bay’s decision to draft Rodgers in the first round (24th overall) of the 2005 draft despite having three-time MVP Brett Favre.
But while Favre famously remarked that it wasn’t his job to mentor the player drafted to replace him, Rodgers reportedly had a positive relationship with Love. Still, the writing was on the wall and the team traded Rodgers to the New York Jets in 2023.
The Packers passed the torch to Love, hoping he would join Bart Starr, Favre and Rodgers in Green Bay's rich quarterbacking history.
Now with the Steelers, Rodgers helped Pittsburgh to a 4-2 start. In Week 8, the 41-year-old passer faces a 4-1-1 Packers team that leads the NFC North. Head coach Matt LaFleur also downplayed the Rodgers narrative for Sunday’s game. LaFleur noted most current Packers players weren’t on the team when Rodgers last quarterbacked Green Bay during the 2022 season.
