Aaron Rodgers knows exactly where he wants to be when he turns 40.
“Hopefully right here,” Rodgers said standing in front of his locker at Lambeau Field. “Hopefully talking to you guys right here.”
On the day Tom Brady turned 40, Rodgers said he not only hopes he’s still playing at that age but he hopes he’s still doing it for the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers, who was drafted by the Packers in 2005, had a front-row seat for the end of Brett Favre’s career in Green Bay during the summer of 2008. But it wasn’t just the end of Favre’s time with the Packers that makes him feel that way.
“It’s being a sports fan and watching some of my favorite all-time players either not finish in the place they started or the place where you fell in love watching them play — or they did,” Rodgers said. “And seeing how different the memory is of those players as a fan, and seeing some of my favorite players growing finishing up now or have finished up in the last two or three years — the Derek Jeters, the Kobe Bryants, the Tim Duncans — doing it their entire career in one place, that makes things pretty special.
“So again, I’m a realist as well. I have to play well, the team has to want to bring me back, but I’ve said I’d like to finish things here where we started.”
For Rodgers to play until he’s 40, he’s going to need at least one more contract. He is signed through the 2019 season. His contract might have to be redone before that since he is no longer among the five highest-paid quarterbacks, in terms of average salary per year.
