For the better part of the 21st century, the NFC was defined by the union between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. They were routinely featured in the playoff picture, and the road to the Super Bowl almost always ran through Green Bay, Wisconsin, hence why it was such a heartbreak when the two of them finally parted ways in 2023.
Advertisement
The National Football League hasn’t been particularly kind to either of them since then. Rodgers was immediately dealt a season-ending injury in his debut with the New York Jets, and the Packers have yet to make it back to another conference championship game.
Nevertheless, the pair of estranged lovers will finally cross paths in Week 8, and according to Richard Sherman, there’s good cause for the butterflies that are floating in Rodgers’ stomach right now. “Aaron is worried about it,” Sherman noted in response to the Packers’ head coach, Matt LaFleur, claiming that he “isn’t worried” about the Rodgers-revenge narrative heading into Sunday.
“And for good reason. He means a lot to this franchise, four MVPs there. He’s going to bring his best. It’s personal, but you can never say it… If it’s a revenge game, you’ve got to say ‘Nah it doesn’t mean that much.’ Because what are you going to say? It means a lot to me? And I hope we can beat the heck out of them and be up 50, that would make my day? You can’t say that.”
According to the oddsmakers out in Las Vegas, however, LaFleur is right to be confident this week. The Packers are currently being listed as -3.5 point favorites, with the comeback on Pittsburgh’s moneyline currently sitting around +150.
Home-field advantage will be in the Steelers’ favor, but that may be about it. The Packers are currently sporting the fourth-shortest Super Bowl odds of any team in the league, and thanks to the addition of Micah Parsons, they are looking every bit of the part.
Green Bay’s defense has only allowed 125 total points throughout the first seven weeks of the season, making it the fifth stingiest team in all of football. Pair that with the fact that Rodgers and the Steelers are only scoring at the 18th-best rate in the league right now, and it seems as if the veteran is about to crash into the brick wall that is his former team.
Then again, if there was ever a quarterback who has made a career out of defying the odds and outperforming his profile, it’s Rodgers. And it is out of appreciation for that very same career as to why we should all be tuning in for this one on Sunday.
