The Green Bay Packers are getting ready for the start of a new era. Aaron Rodgers is no longer their quarterback, so it may take some time getting used to not seeing him there. Although the team seems ready to move on with Jordan Love as the starter.
The odds for the franchise to win the Super Bowl this season are very low for the trade that sent Rodgers to the New York Jets. Even with him in the lineup the Packers missed the playoffs last season after losing to the Detroit Lions on week 18, which forces everyone to temper their expectations.
However, even if they don’t have a good year that won’t change the fact that they are an historic franchise. Green Bay had a lot of all-time greats representing them, but there is one future Hall of Famer that couldn’t make his dream of playing with their jersey come true.
All-time great was interested in playing for the Packers
There are some players that remain their whole careers in one franchise. Nowadays that looks less likely, with Rodgers going to the Jets being something unthinkable not too long ago. The other example is Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency. In that situation was this star, but he went somewhere else.
JJ Watt is the player that admitted he thought about playing for the Green Bay Packers. The superstar defensive end played his first 10 seasons for the Houston Texans, winning the Defensive Player of the Year award three times. It was a transitional period for the franchise after the 2020 season what led to him becoming a free agent. Chasing a ring with the Packers was interesting back then since Rodgers won back-to-back NFL MVPs in 2021 and 2022.
“There’s certainly a part of me that thought about that. There’s a story for another day. I can’t share. That’s a story for like a memoir someday. There was certainly a thought for that. Sometimes, things just don’t materialize. Sometimes things just don’t happen the way fairy tales are supposed to happen”, Watt said when asked about playing for the Packers in an interview with Adam Schein at the “Rise and Schein” podcast.
The Arizona Cardinals were the team he ended up choosing amid plenty of interest from different places. Watt confirmed his retirement earlier this year, so he won’t be able to achieve his dream of representing Green Bay. Going to the Packers would have been a perfect end of his career considering Watt not only was born in Wisconsin, but he also spent three of his four years in college playing for the Badgers.
