As the Green Bay Packers prepare to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday night in prime time, the biggest storyline surrounding this highly anticipated matchup is naturally Aaron Rodgers taking on the team that employed him for 18 years for the first and likely only time in his career.
Rodgers, of course, was taken in the first round of the 2005 draft at a time when Brett Favre was still playing at an extremely high level, which is why Rodgers sat on the bench for three years before becoming Green Bay's starting quarterback. And those were three rocky years for Rodgers, as Favre really had no interest in serving as a mentor to the man who was brought in to one day take his job.
As everyone knows, Rodgers was put in that same situation in 2020 when the Packers opted to use their first-round draft pick to select Jordan Love. It's no secret that Rodgers was unhappy with the decision, and he's had no problem pointing that out over the years.
But he also knew what he'd gone through with Favre, and while there are a lot of people out there who still think Rodgers may have treated Love the same way Favre had treated him, that's not the case at all.
Matt LaFleur reveals true feelings on how Aaron Rodgers treated Jordan Love
Matt LaFleur obviously knows this, and when discussing the relationship between his former starter and current starter ahead of Sunday's matchup, the Packers' head coach made sure to give Rodgers his flowers.
"I think (Rodgers) was awesome with him, did a great job being supportive, trying to give him nuggets, and I think Jordan leaned into that," LaFleur said.
Love certainly did lean into what Rodgers was willing to teach him, whether it be more normal things like footwork, film study, and cadences to the more non-traditional things that the four-time NFL MVP could pull off on a football field that others couldn't.
Simply put, Love wanted to know everything, and Rodgers, unlike Favre, was happy to help, even knowing full well that Jordan would one day replace him.
"I was real quiet in the quarterback room," Love said earlier this week. "I was trying to just sit back and watch him. I tried to stay in my lane, but A-Rod was great at trying to find ways to incorporate me into the room and give me little pointers."
The two remain friends and even get together in the offseason on occasion. But friendship goes out the door this weekend, as Love looks to take everything Rodgers taught him to get himself a victory over his predecessor, which Rodgers failed to do on his first two tries against Favre.