Tom Brady Explains Why He Doesn't Want Aaron Rodgers to Retire

With Tom Brady announcing his retirement earlier this month, fans and experts are wondering if Aaron Rodgers will be right behind him. The Green Bay Packers quarterback is contemplating his future and is not ruling out retiring from the league. And when Brady talked about Rodgers on the Let's Go! podcast this week, he explained why he doesn't want the Super Bowl champion to hang up his cleats. 

"You know what, I hope he doesn't retire," Brady said, per NFL.com. "... I think the league needs good quarterbacks, and he's one of the greats. So if he retires, it'll be a sad day for the league."  Rodgers is coming off a challenging 2022 season where he threw just 26 touchdowns and was intercepted 12 times. It's the least amount of touchdowns Rodgers has thrown since 2019 and the most interceptions he's thrown since the 2010 season when he threw 11. Rodgers' production led to the Packers finishing 8-9 on the year, but Brady thinks that he played well considering everything he went through this past season. 

"Certainly from the standpoint of him leaving the game the way that he's playing, he broke his thumb this year and still played tremendous(ly)," Brady said. "And you could see as he got healthy throughout the year how incredibly talented he is. So I hope the good players keep playing. That's what my hope is. That's what I tried to do. And now you hope that the next generation does that and I hope they have the tools necessary to do that. I was very fortunate to work with a guy, Alex (Guerrero), who is my best friend, a brother to me and taught me so much."

Rodgers is trying to earn one more Super Bowl win to solidify his legacy. Despite being one of the most talented quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL, Rodgers has only played in one Super Bowl, which was in 2011 (2010 season). He has been close to reaching the big game again, leading the team to the NFC Championship four times since 2014. The Packers have lost all four games for multiple reasons, and even if Rodgers doesn't retire, the team could trade him and have Jordan Love as their starter.