Packers' Aaron Rodgers on facing Patriots: It's not about me vs. Tom Brady
All eyes will be on Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady on Sunday when they square off against each other for the first time as starters.
As a quarterback in the NFC, Rodgers' opportunities of playing Brady or Peyton Manning are few and far between. The Green Bay Packers have faced Brady's New England Patriots twice since drafting Rodgers in 2005, but he was a backup in 2006 and was held out of the 2010 game with an injury.
"I don't have a void in my career for not playing them more times," Rodgers said Tuesday on his ESPN Milwaukee radio show. "I have a ton of respect for them in their careers, but again I don't ever look at it like it's one quarterback against another. It takes 11 every single play to be effective. We play against some great teams in the NFC all the time. They've spent their careers in the AFC and that's kind of the way it's gone.
"I'd like to think that at some point by the end of my career, I'll have a number of matchups against a quarterback in the NFC who they like, much in the way that they like Brady and Manning, and they can make some comparison there, but I won't have any void from not playing those guys. I'd rather not; they're great players."
As intriguing as the Rodgers versus Brady matchup is, it's just one of many storylines heading into Sunday's game. At 9-2 and riding a seven-game winning streak, the Patriots are one of the hottest teams in the NFL at the moment. The Packers are also on a roll, having won seven of their last eight.
"That's kind of what happens at times in this league," Rodgers said. "You go through some rough points and it kind of reveals the character of the football team and obviously they have a lot of character in that locker room and guys who stuck together, and that's the most important thing when you're facing adversity.
"And our team had to go through it as well and we stuck together and got on a roll and won seven of eight, so it's a couple of hot teams coming together, and it will be a great matchup."