Steelers' Aaron Rodgers wishes
Thursday's preseason game with Packers could take place in Green Bay
[August 13, 2026]
By STEVE MEGARGEE
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has one regret about
starting his final NFL season with an exhibition game against the
team that drafted him.
He would have preferred Thursday’s matchup with the Packers take
place in Green Bay rather than Pittsburgh. Rodgers wanted to have
one final moment in the place where he spent his first 18 seasons
and won four MVP awards and a Super Bowl.
“I was really hoping this one was going to be in Green Bay, not just
to get back at Lambeau one more time, but to head out to Chives for
a dinner and maybe head out to Green Bay Country Club for a quick
nine or something,” Rodgers said Wednesday in a Zoom session with
Packers reporters. “I was really hoping it was going to be in Green
Bay, for a lot of reasons.”
This will be the second time Rodgers has faced his former team since
leaving the Packers in 2023, though there’s no indication yet on
whether he will play Thursday. Both games were in Pittsburgh, so
Rodgers will head into retirement after this season having never
played against the Packers at Lambeau Field.
“It would have been strange, being in that locker room and stuff,”
Rodgers said. “But I would have found my way over, like many former
players have over the years, found my way over to Flea’s (Packers
head athletic trainer Bryan Engel’s) office and hang out back there
and see some of the guys and see some of the trainers and equipment
staff and all the people I really care about that still work there.
"Yeah, I was definitely bummed out that we weren’t in Lambeau for
this one.”
Rodgers’ Steelers lost 35-25 to the Packers last October. Jordan
Love, the quarterback Green Bay selected in the first round of the
2020 draft to become Rodgers’ eventual successor, threw for 360
yards and three touchdowns that night.
When he was asked what he missed the most about Wisconsin aside from
football and the fans, Rodgers talked about the house he owned
during his Packers years, the meals he enjoyed at Chives and the
rounds of golf he played. Then he turned the subject back toward
football.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) fist bumps wide
receiver Germie Bernard, left during the NFL team's training camp in
Latrobe, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
“The falls there are just awesome, when the weather
gets that cool little nip,” Rodgers said. “I loved the night games
at Lambeau, especially the Sunday nights, Monday nights and
occasional Thursday nights. Just so much fun. There’s nothing like
that crowd. I’ve been other places, I knew that when I was in Green
Bay, but there’s nothing like that fan base and the way they travel
and the crowds at home.
“Players around the league, they talk about how special it is to
play at Lambeau, and sometimes you might miss that or forget about
that when you’re playing because it becomes so normal to have such
an amazing crowd and they’re tailgating and they’re loud and they
rarely sell their tickets to other teams’ fans. There’s a lot of
great things about Wisconsin. I grew up there, really, and became a
little more mature as an adult over the years there and had a great
time and still have a lot of close friends there, a lot of fond
memories.”
Rodgers did play his other former team as a visiting player last
season when he made his Steelers debut and led Pittsburgh to a 34-32
victory over the New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Rodgers was with the Jets from 2023-24 after they acquired him from
Green Bay, though he missed virtually all of 2023 after tearing his
Achilles tendon in the season opener.
The Steelers host the Jets on Aug. 21 in their second preseason
game.
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