Aaron Rodgers wore the No. 12 jersey for the Green Bay Packers for 18 seasons. And now that the Super Bowl champion quarterback has been traded to the New York Jets, he will wear a new number. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Rodgers will wear No. 8 for the Jets. One reason he won’t wear No. 12 is that is the same number that Jets legendary quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath wore. Schefter said that Namath gave Rodgers his blessing to wear No. 12, but the 39-year-old is going with No. 8 since is the same number he wore while playing college football for the California Golden Bears.
Jets fans don’t care what number Rodgers has as long as he wins games for the team this fall. It will be a little surprising to see Rodgers play with a new team since he’s been with the Packers since 2005. But when Rodgers and the Packers did not get on the same page this offseason, it was clear both parties were ready to move on.
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“I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron to see how he fit into that,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said in late March. “Those never transpired. So there came a time where we had to make some decisions, so we went through his representatives to try to talk to him [about] where were we going with our team. At that point, they informed us that he would like to be traded to the Jets.”
In the trade, the Jets will get Rodgers and the Packers’ first-round pick (No. 15) and a 2023 fifth-round pick (No. 170). The Packers got a big return for trading Rodgers, receiving the Jets’ first-round pick (No. 13), a 2023 second-round pick (No. 42), a 2023 sixth-round pick (No. 207) and a conditional 2024 second-round pick that becomes a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays this fall.
During his time in Green Bay, Rodgers led the Packers to 11 playoff appearances and one Super Bowl championship. He was named to the Pro Bowl 10 times, selected to the All-Pro Team eight times and named NFL MVP four times. Rodgers’ 18 seasons with the Packers are the most in team history.
