“The gift is a gift to be able to stay in the moment and be grateful to be in this situation again, and to be with the guys and have fans in our stadium and maybe snow in an NFC championship game,” he continued. “I will definitely enjoy these moments, and not worry about what will happen in the future.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to lead these guys again, for playing the way I want, for being called into a bigger leadership role. These things are very, very important to me.”
Your teammates can’t help but notice too. Rodgers is one of only two players (kicker Mason Crosby is the other) on the active list of Packers to have played in the Super Bowl, so his level of leadership naturally increases in times like this.
“He’s really the guy who leads the attack,” said center pivot Corey Linsley. “Leading us and keeping our eyes on the prize … because he has that wisdom. He knows what it takes to get there. He knows what it takes week after week to continue this journey.”
Standing on the way to the Super Bowl is now the quarterback who has played in more of them than anyone else, Tom Brady.
Rodgers never looked at QB clashes like the direct confrontations often portrayed in the media, but he understands the story when two future members of the Hall of Fame in the most prominent position in the game step onto the field together.
In the spring, when Brady left New England and signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent, it certainly crossed Rodgers’ mind that they would be adversaries again, and perhaps with some high stakes. They had met only twice (in 2014 and 18) until this year, when they met for the third time in October and now again in their most significant confrontation.