The Bears can sleep easier now that the Packers have traded Rodgers to the Jets.<\/b>
\nLight those fireworks, Chicago. Ignite the victory cigars.
\tAaron Rodgers is gone!
\tWell, he\u2019s not off the planet, which would be nice, but the former Packers quarterback is far enough away \u2014 New York \u2014 that he can\u2019t hurt us anymore. At least not for years.\u00a0
\tAs we all know, Rodgers was to the Bears what a parasitic wasp is to a caterpillar. That\u2019s the mommy that lays its eggs on a caterpillar and watches as its babies slowly eat their way out. A 25-5 career record against the Bears says it all.
\tThe quarterback-desperate Jets finally got Rodgers, 39, in a trade for several draft picks. And Rodgers gets to go where he likely was destined to go since his days of ayahuasca-taking and darkness retreats led him to some kind of enlightenment the rest of us only can guess at.
The Bears played \u2014 and lost to \u2014 the Jets last season. But because the NFL rotates divisional opponents each season, the Bears might not face him until 2026. However, an AFC East team will be the Bears\u2019 17th opponent in 2024, so they could see him sooner than later.
But by \u201926, one would hope the ever-searching Rodgers will have left football and found a starring role on Broadway or will have formed his own punk band that plays nightly at CBGB, which he will have bought and reopened.
\tBright lights, big city. Stay there, Aaron. Illuminate Times Square.
\tIndeed, this sportswriter finds it a pity that former Bengals defensive lineman Mike Hammerstein retired in 1990 and isn\u2019t available in a trade. Can you imagine the Jets being led by Rodgers and Hammerstein? Ah, to be a headline writer for the New York Post.
\tAnyway, Rodgers leaving the Packers changes the dynamics of the NFC North and the Bears\u2019 position in it. Suddenly, it\u2019s Bears quarterback Justin Fields\u2019 world to rule.
\tYes, there\u2019s Kirk Cousins with the Vikings and Jared Goff with the Lions. They\u2019re good quarterbacks, solid. But they\u2019re not young and shimmering with unknown potential.
\tIf the 24-year-old Fields turns out to be as good as the Bears hope, with a quality team around him, Rodgers\u2019 exit might vanish from memory like a nightmarish tire fire in the rain.
\tRodgers\u2019 replacement on the Packers will be Jordan Love, a young man who has shown us very little during his limited action afield.
\tBut who knows? The 24-year-old Love, the Packers\u2019 first-round draft pick in 2020, has waited three years to be a starter \u2014 just as Rodgers waited three years for Brett Favre to move on \u2014 and might be full of sauce when he finally gets control of the kitchen. He might be a superstar, dominating the Bears once again.
\tIt\u2019s for sure Rodgers wasn\u2019t thrilled when the Packers drafted Love, his eventual replacement, instead of a wide receiver or two. And that slight, certainly, has contributed to Rodgers\u2019 seemingly constant restlessness. But it\u2019s over now. The soap opera moves on.
\tIronically \u2014 or maybe just coincidentally \u2014 Favre left for the Jets after 15 years with the Packers. It\u2019s like New York has become the resting place for old Cheesehead leaders.
\tMaybe Love will turn into the next Rodgers. That would be something, wouldn\u2019t it? The Packers with three consecutive Hall of Famers for 40 or so years? The horror.
\tBut look at the bright side: Rodgers is gone. The sun bears down on the Bears. All is bright.
\tAnd even if Rodgers had stayed with the Packers, he\u2019s possibly a diminished man. Last season was arguably his worst, with only 3,695 passing yards and 26 touchdown passes. Of course, that yardage would be the third-most in Bears history. And the touchdowns would be the fourth-most. Such is the Bears\u2019 dismal quarterbacking record.
\tOne wonders whether Rodgers will be happy in New York. He never seems to be. The Jets have a very good defense, and Tom Brady proved an old quarterback still can rise to the occasion.
\tSo maybe the table is set for Rodgers to make a run at an incredible fifth MVP award. He says he thinks he can do it. There\u2019s a pretty gigantic ego behind all this all, remember. Which there probably must be. Throwing your aging body out there to be brutalized by big uglies isn\u2019t for the well-rounded.
\tMe? I hope Rodgers finds a soulmate other than a movie actress or race-car driver and chills. I\u2019m thinking maybe a Nathan\u2019s hot-dog vendor or a Garment District seamstress.
\tJust somebody who keeps him in New York forever.<\/p>\n