Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Most of the available free agents have agreed to sign with one team or another this week across the NFL. But a couple of meaningful free agents remain unsigned, and one of them is former Green Bay Packers superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
He is moving on from the New York Jets after two dismal seasons with them, and naturally, there has been lots of speculation about which uniform he will wear this fall. He was first linked to the Los Angeles Rams, and after the Rams decided to keep Matthew Stafford, Rodgers has been linked to the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers.
However, there is always a chance that Rodgers would sign with the Minnesota Vikings, which would put Packers fans and the entire state of Wisconsin in a torture chamber. After all, Brett Favre, his predecessor in Green Bay, left Green Bay in 2008, spent a bit of time with the Jets and then ended his career as a member of the Vikings.
Favre was asked by Will Cain on a prominent cable news network what he would say to Rodgers about possibly going to the Vikings, and he practically encouraged the four-time MVP to do so.
“By all means, sign with them. They got a really good football team. They’re loaded at pretty much every position,” Favre said on Fox News. “They made it to the playoffs last year. They got a tremendous fan base, much like the Packers. If you get the opportunity, that’s a good place to win. Of course, you gotta play the Packers then.”
Favre’s arrival in Green Bay in 1992 after one season with the Atlanta Falcons ended a long dry spell for the Packers and made them perennial contenders again. But his time with the hated Vikings wasn’t nearly as fruitful — they made the playoffs in 2009 and lost in the NFC Championship Game to the New Orleans Saints, and the following year, they won just six games.
Today, the Vikings have a talented team, especially on offense, that went 14-3 and nearly finished first in the NFC North with Sam Darnold at quarterback in 2024. But it looks like they’re committed to going with J.J. McCarthy, the No. 10 pick in last year’s NFL draft, as their QB1 in 2025 after Darnold left to join the Seattle Seahawks.
If Rodgers follows in Favre’s footsteps and sticks it to Packers fans by playing for the Vikings this fall, he will have to brace himself for the nasty reception he will get when they travel to Lambeau Field to play the Packers.