Aaron Rodgers Borrowing From Tom Brady's TB12 Method in Pursuit of Football Immortality
By Liam McKeone
We do not yet know exactly what pushed Aaron Rodgers to the brink with the Green Bay Packers. We can all connect the dots and make educated guesses, but there hasn't been any one reason that has emerged from the pack marking the tipping point in the relationship between the two sides. But we can be reasonably certain that the Packers selecting Jordan Love last year is a factor. Rodgers is 38-years-old and it seems clear Green Bay was expecting him to retire sometime in the next three years, hence why they felt it was worth the cost to move up and invest in another QB in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Obviously, one year after that, the idea that Rodgers is on the precipice of retirement is silly. He played arguably the best season of his career and won his third MVP trophy as a result. Retirement is still theoretically an option on the table if he really doesn't want to play for the Packers anymore and they won't trade him, but Rodgers will not be hanging up the cleats because he can't play.
The fact that Rodgers had the kind of season he did at his age is nothing short of remarkable. Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show yesterday, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer may have given us a glimpse into why Rodgers was able to do it when he mentioned that the longtime Packers QB is borrowing from the TB12 method to prolong his career (at the 4:00 mark of the below video):
Really interesting take from @theMMQB @Albert Breer about how @TomBrady contract affects @AaronRodgers12 and @DangeRussWilson, who both grumbled this offseason about possibly changing locations:#NFL #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/D4TGOvwhLU
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) May 11, 2021
Tom Brady, of course, will forever be the shining example of how it's possible to fight off Father Time. He's 43-years-old coming off his seventh Super Bowl championship. As with all great players, Brady is the exception rather than the rule for this. We will likely never again see a quarterback play this well as a member of the 40-and-over crowd.
But if anyone can do it? It would be Rodgers, one of the most physically gifted signal-callers to ever step foot on the field. And if he's adopting the TB12 method, the Packers look even worse. They could have enjoyed another five years of their Hall of Fame quarterback. Instead, they jumped the gun and now he's so mad he doesn't want to wear the uniform again.
Tough sequence of events.