Aaron Rodgers is Still Chasing Brett Favre's Packers Legacy

Brett Favre is widely considered one of the best quarterbacks to grace the field in the game of football; the original gunslinger who racked up massive accolades en route to winning one Super Bowl and appearing in another.

No one thought Favre's successor in Green Bay would ever come close to matching him on the field, but Aaron Rodgers blew any and all expectations out of the water after taking over the starting job. Rodgers may very well be the most talented quarterback to play in the NFL. When he won a Super Bowl only two years into his starting gig, everyone thought it was only the beginning of another Packers era of dominance that would bring about several more February appearances.

Now that the decade has come and gone, that hasn't quite been the case. The Packers have been good, no doubt about that; they nearly went undefeated in 2011 and have been regulars in the playoffs when Rodgers is healthy outside of 2018. But they haven't made it back to the Super Bowl with Rodgers at the helm, and Sunday will mark only their second conference championship appearance since 2010.

For all of his impressive statistical accomplishments and his championship ring, Rodgers is still chasing the legacy Favre left behind in Green Bay.

While they currently have the same number of Super Bowl wins, Favre led the Packers to four NFC title games, including a run of three straight from 1995-1997. He remains the only player in NFL history to win three consecutive MVP awards. Rodgers has two MVPs under his belt, but can't quite match that stretch of dominance from Favre. The Packers were the team to beat in the NFC during that time; while everyone in the NFL rightly fears Rodgers, Green Bay has been overshadowed this decade by the Seahawks in the NFC and the Patriots in the AFC.

Not all of this is in Rodgers' control, of course. Favre led the Packers out of years of irrelevance after they were the cream of the crop in the NFL's earlier days. It certainly isn't Rodgers' fault that his time came when Packers fans were accustomed to regular playoff appearances. Favre's prime also didn't come in the shadow of the greatest dynasty the NFL has ever seen in New England. Rodgers will forever be known as the player who kept up the Packers' success rolling, rather than leading them to their first playoff appearance in a decade.

Rodgers still has more than enough time to change that, and Sunday will bring his best opportunity yet. The conversation will change if he can bring a second championship to Green Bay under his watch, something Favre was unable to do. Two titles 10 years apart would encapsulate just how good Rodgers has been. He'll never be the man who brought the Packers back, but with another Super Bowl victory, he'll cement himself next to Favre in legacy with the opportunity to surpass him -- as long as he doesn't go play for the Vikings.