Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will get another opportunity to bring his team to the Super Bowl when his Packers take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game on Sunday.
At age 37, Rodgers is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, and with Green Bay drafting his eventual replacement, Jordan Love, in last year’s NFL Draft, it would appear that Rodgers may not get a lot more of these opportunities, making Sunday’s game that much more crucial.
However, Rodgers isn’t thinking about his future, or worried about how many chances he may have left. Rodgers is focusing on the present.
“I’m always just trying to stay present, especially this year as much as anything, and enjoy the moments,” Rodgers said, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “I hope there’s more opportunities, but I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t. That stuff is out of my control. My future is a beautiful mystery I think. The present is such a gift to be able to stay in the moment and to have gratitude for being in this situation again, and being with the guys and having fans in our stadium and maybe snow in an NFC Championship Game. I’m going to enjoy these moments for sure, and just not worry about what happens down the line.”
Rodgers is looking for his second career trip to the Super Bowl, and also to avenge last year’s blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL Championship Game.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity again to be leading these guys, to have played the way I want to play, to be called upon for a greater leadership role,” Rodgers said. “Those things are really, really important to me. But all that other stuff … is stuff that I’m just not going to focus on. Because to me it is a beautiful mystery what happens down the line, but there’ll be a time when we meet that future, and right now I’m just going to enjoy the present.”
“No more pressure than usual,” Rodgers continued.
“I think a lot of times the storylines, pressure and those kinds of comments are good stuff for you guys to write about, but I think it starts with the mentality and focus. Obviously I put pressure on myself to perform every single week, and I think there’s a lot to be said for being able to harness that pressure and fear of failure and focus into a real positive. That’s something you learn over the years. But I don’t feel any extra pressure going into this one.
“Definitely thankful to be back here. A lot of people didn’t think we’d be back here after last season. We got a lot of interesting comments last year about us being the worst 13-3 team that people had seen. Not the same type of comments this [time]. Obviously we’re clicking a lot better on offense, I do feel really thankful to be back here, thankful for the chance to be playing.”
