NEWSLETTER
Aaron Rodgers is no longer a member of the Green Bay Packers.
It’s a sentence I’ve been wanting to write for years.
And finally, that day has come:
Ding, dong! The witch is dead.
Rodgers has been tormenting my football soul for 15 years. He has gutted me in come-from-behind wins and left me embarrassed about my fandom while watching blowout losses. Rodgers dashed Super Bowl dreams I had for the Bears in 2010. And brought the Packers back from the dead in 2013, out-dueling Jay Cutler in a game we’d look at differently if Chris Conte would’ve known to be in the right coverage. Watching him line up against the who’s who of forgettable quarterbacks the Bears have put up to face him has been painful. So on the one hand, I’m so happy Rodgers is gone. The sunshine is brighter and the air is fresher. That cold mug of beer is tastier. Music sounds better. For the first time in a hot minute, it genuinely feels like the arrow is pointing up. All because Rodgers has left the building.
But on the other hand, I wish he would’ve hung around. Watching Justin Fields unseat Rodgers as the NFC North’s best QB would’ve been priceless. I would’ve paid Taylor Swift secondary market ticket prices to see Fields, DJ Moore, Cole Kmet, and friends dismantle a Packers team with an aging quarterback in his decline years. It would’ve been delightful.
Just as the Bears start getting their act together as an organization, Rodgers takes his talents elsewhere. Clearly, he is afraid of the sleeping giant Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus are building in Chicago. Armed with a top 10 pick, nine other selections in this draft, two firsts next year, and a nifty amount of cap space, the Bears should be a force to be reckoned with moving forward. That they won’t get to pummel Rodgers on his way out the door stinks and he should consider himself lucky. In a way, Rodgers pushing himself out of Green Bay is a cowardly act. Our favorite quarterback would never!
But, hey, maybe the Bears will still get that chance when Rodgers ultimately fulfills his prophecy and ends up with the Minnesota Vikings in a few years.
