Packers: Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady meet for the fourth time

For the first time in playoff history, the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers will welcome Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Lambeau Field this Sunday.

What’s on the line, you ask?

How about a trip to Super Bowl LV.

That’s right, for the fourth time in both quarterback’s illustrious careers, Rodgers and Brady will face off with both looking to take that next step in NFL history.

The NFC Championship Game will be the first time the two will meet in the playoffs and the payoff couldn’t be higher. The two squared off two previous times when Brady was a member of the New England Patriots with each quarterback winning on their home turf.

However, in 2020, Tampa Bay got the better of Green Bay in Rodgers’ worst game of the season, by far.

But we all know that one game doesn’t define a team’s season.

We meet again: Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady

Green Bay would go on to win nine out of the remaining 11 games since that fateful day in Tampa Bay. Rodgers would turn into the league’s MVP throwing 48 touchdowns and 4,299 yards as the No. 1 offense — led by Rodgers and Davante Adams — kept powering through teams.

In the divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams, Rodgers would account for three total touchdowns as Green Bay put up 32 points at home.

But let’s give credit where credit is due. Brady in his first season with Tampa Bay has continued to prove why many herald him as the greatest of all time. With an 11-5 record, a wild-card berth, winning on the road in back-to-back games against the Washington Football Team and New Orleans Saints, this Tampa Bay team is clicking at the right time.

Brady has seen it all and done it all throughout his career in the playoffs and to perform at age 43 reaching another championship game? It’s nothing but impressive.

This time it’s at Lambeau Field

While Rodgers-Brady III will no doubt be a major storyline all week, one major advantage Green Bay will have is Lambeau Field.

Green Bay is 8-1 (including the playoffs) at home this season and averaging 31.5 points per game. The offense recently got a boost when almost 9,000 fans were allowed into Lambeau Field for the divisional round.

To perform at a high level in front of a home-crowd begging to watch their team all season due to an ongoing pandemic was noticed by Rodgers and Co.

“To run out on the field with fans was unbelievable,” Rodgers said after defeating Los Angeles, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette’s Richard Ryman and Jeff Bollier.

The energy of the crowd level will be even higher as for the first time in the Aaron Rodgers-era, Green Bay will host the NFC Championship Game. However, both the fans and Green Bay must do their part as Brady is no stranger to ending a team’s season at the drop of a hat.

Time for a new history

Fortune favors the bold, they say, and Brady’s lone game against Rodgers at Lambeau Field in 2014 resulted in an epic 26-21 victory for Green Bay.

Rodgers won the 2014 MVP award that season and looks to be a lock-in 2020. While 2014 — look away Packers fans — resulted in a heartbreaking overtime loss to Seattle, and again in 2017 at Atlanta  … and again last season at San Francisco, for all the heart-wrenching losses — Rodgers, at Lambeau Field, can forge a new history this decade.

And it starts by beating Brady next Sunday.