Aaron Rodgers is pulling for “all the old guys” this year

This week’s Thursday Night Football sees the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to the Cincinnati Bengals, bringing together the two oldest quarterbacks in the league.

Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers is the league’s oldest active player at 41 and will turn 42 before the end of the season. At 40, Joe Flacco is not far behind and the two NFL legends are pulling against a trend of younger quarterbacks getting minutes across the league.

Thursday’s game will be the third time in NFL history that both starting quarterbacks are over the age of 40. Both previous occasions were meeting between Tom Brady and Drew Brees in 2020. Speaking to reporters ahead of the game, Rodgers admitted that he now enjoys seeing older players continuing to compete at the highest level.

“I think it’s great for all the old guys,” Rodgers said. “I know that when I watch sports, maybe because I’m the older guy, but I tend to pull for the older guys to win, win championships.”

“Anytime the Warriors are playing, I’m always pulling for Steph [Curry] to ball out, for them to win. I’ve known Joe [Flacco] for a long time. He’s been great coming to my charity event. He’s been a great ambassador for the league, had a great career and it’s fun that we’re both still playing.”

Rodgers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2005, while Flacco began with the Baltimore Ravens in 2008. A lot has changed in the NFL since then, with mobility and athleticism increasingly favored when teams are drafting out of college. Speaking ahead of the Thursday game, Rodgers described Flacco as “one of the old-school, 2000s, 90s prototypical quarterbacks.”

Rodgers explained: “The big guys who had the big arms. Now, there’s some smaller guys, some really athletic guys playing the position.

“I think he would probably agree with me sometimes when you’re watching other guys play, it feels like they’re playing a different position because of the athleticism and the way the game is called, there’s more read-option called, you’re seeing more of the college game in the NFL.”

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