The Green Bay Packers traded star quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets, ending his storied 18-season run on the famed Frozen Tundra.
The most anticipated move of the NFL off-season came to fruition as Rodgers, a four-time MVP who’s a sure-fire Hall of Famer parted ways with the club, which that drafted him in 2005 to take the place of another Green Bay legend, Brett Favre.
He led the Packers to a 2011 Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers and made Green Bay a perennial contender.
Rodgers has thrown for 475 touchdown passes, the fifth most in NFL history, and he'd be the active career leader as long as Tom Brady remains retired. His 59,055 passing yards puts him at No. 9 in NFL history and second among active quarterbacks, trailing only Matt Ryan.
Rodgers had voiced ongoing displeasure with Green Bay management in recent years for allegedly not surrounding him with more talent that could have brought the team more playoff wins.
The situation came to a head in March, after another disappointing season in which the Packers failed to make the playoffs, when Rodgers announced his desire to play for the Jets on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
His penchant for openly criticizing his coaches and teammates has made Rodgers a polarizing figure in the NFL. And he has also gained notoriety for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 after he hinted that he might have been by saying he'd been “immunized."
His arrival in East Rutherford, New Jersey will give long-suffering Jets fans hope for a brighter future. The team hasn't qualified for the playoffs since the 2010-11 season and is on a streak of seven consecutive losing seasons.
To get Rodgers, the Jets gave the Packers a host of 2023 draft picks, including first- and second-round selections.
CORRECTION (April 24, 2023, 9 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of the host of a show on which Aaron Rodgers appeared in March. He is Pat McAfee, not McCaffee.
