The season for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers is over. From their perspective, three weeks too soon. It may have been their last playoff ride together. The quarterback, at any rate, has special words and sets a deadline for himself in making the decision.

Munich – Is this it? Is this how the era of the great Aaron Rodgers ends for the Green Bay Packers? With a 10:13 home defeat against the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round that was hardly thought possible?

In the eyes of many football fans and experts, the Californians only seemed to have come to freezing Wisconsin to serve as sparring partners. So that the heavy favourites could warm up for the really big tasks in the playoffs.

Against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom they still have a score to settle from last season. Or the Los Angeles Rams with their dream of a home Super Bowl. And then, in the game of all games, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buffalo Bills or possibly even the Cincinnati Bengals.

Question about Rodgers future outshines everything

But it all turned out quite differently. After an overall disappointing performance – especially from the special teams, but also from the offense – the first playoff game this year was also the last.

Which inevitably leaves one question looming over everything else around Lambeau Field: Will we ever see Rodgers on the football field in a Packers jersey again?

LaFleur wants Rodgers “to continue to be here “

If head coach Matt LaFleur has his way, it’s a no-brainer: “Certainly we want him to continue to be here. I think we’d be crazy if that wasn’t the case. He’s going to be MVP two years in a row. This guy has done so much for our football team.”

Other than that, it would be hard to find anyone in Green Bay who would argue against the 38-year-old staying.

Rodgers is untouchable at Packers

Because in his 17 years for the franchise, the “Gunslinger” has become exceptional. Thanks to his passing accuracy, which is second to none, and his leadership style on the court, which even young head coaches can grow from.

Rodgers is far more than the face of the team. Long since untouchable.

And he knows it, of course. As the past offseason revealed.

When the quarterback publicly dragged the front office around general manager Brian Gutekunst through the ring, threatened with a trade or even the end of his career, only to return after weeks of squabbling and really give the bosses a piece of his mind in a sensational press conference.

Love draft seemed to only briefly scratch Rodgers’ status

Fortan’s every wish was read from his lips. So it became abundantly clear who is currently calling the shots in Green Bay. At least the decision-makers didn’t have to apologise publicly for drafting Jordan Love. A move that seemed to scratch the status of number twelve. Water under the bridge.

Yes, Rodgers has long been all-powerful, perhaps even saintly to some. In the franchise that has, after all, produced Bart Starr and Brett Favre and won more titles than any other NFL team.

Vaccine Posse Doesn’t Hurt Rodgers

The hoax over his immune status didn’t change that. Rodgers is not vaccinated, but that only became clear after a positive test mid-season. Before that, he had enjoyed privileges available only to NFL players protected from serious Covid 19 offenses. Wrongly, then.

He was fined only $14,650 by the league for regular Covid protocol violations. It is questionable whether many other professionals would have got off so lightly.

Rodgers followed this up with countless confused Corona statements that would have been better left unspoken. Nevertheless, the vast majority of fans continued to celebrate him as if nothing had happened. So he also came out of this theatre stronger.

In fact, it became clear once again that nobody wants to mess with Rodgers. Not the NFL. Especially not the Packers.

Rodgers to decide on future before Free Agency

Therefore, only one person will ultimately decide whether Rodgers continues in Green Bay: Rodgers himself. With 37 touchdown passes and four interceptions, he couldn’t top his previous MVP season, but the award for best player of the regular season should land in his trophy cabinet for the fourth time.

Still in the moment of greatest disappointment, the ten-time Pro Bowler said about his plans, “I don’t think we should talk about it right after the game. I’ll take some time and have conversations with people here and then make a decision – obviously before Free Agency and everything.”

So it should not be a hanging game. Rodgers would have to drop his trousers by the beginning of March if he wants to back up his words with action.

Rodgers had “nice weekend” planned

At the same time, the California native, who may have been doubly hurt by the loss to the 49ers because of his heritage, made it clear that he didn’t expect anything close to this end to the season. “It’s a little shocking, for sure. I was hoping to have a nice weekend in terms of the NFC Championship Game, enjoy the rest of the time until then and then reflect on some things. So I haven’t really digested the moment yet.”

Which should be equally true for the franchise as a whole. Because so far, apart from minor slip-ups, the season had been going great. In addition, many long-injured starters returned in time for the play-off entry. Everything seemed set for a deep run.

Packers may be facing upheaval

But instead, a major shakeup may now be in store for the Packers. As “ESPN” reporter Adam Schefter reports, the team will start free agency with the mortgage of being 44.8 million US dollars over the salary cap. So there would have to be a lot of restructuring or mucking out first.

Rodgers, who found his own performance against San Francisco “frustrating”, has already made it clear: he is not available for a rebuild. In view of his age, he doesn’t want to give up a year, so to speak, but in any case undertake the next attack on the Super Bowl. Perhaps at a different venue. Almost every competitor would undoubtedly take him in their arms.

Rodgers sums up his time with the Packers

His contract, which still has two years to run, could end early after this season. So the era could end relatively quietly, at least in this respect.

A few sentences already sounded like farewells. “I am very proud of what I have achieved here. Very grateful for the many years in the organisation and the incredible teammates and coaches I’ve had in that time,” Rodgers summed up the 17 seasons with many highs and significantly fewer lows and became sentimental: “That’s part of the legacy, the friendships and the memories on and off the field.”

Warm words on a bitterly cold evening made to feel even frostier by Green Bay’s abrupt end to the season. They would be parting words that would do absolute justice to a special, if not always easy of late, sporting relationship between a club and its superstar.

From that perspective, Rodgers would have laid the ball on perfectly. As so often in the past 17 years.