Report: Tom Brady 'Fully Intends' to Play in 2022, Face Aaron Rodgers Again
When the Patriots defeated the Packers on Sunday Night Football last weekend, it marked what was likely the last time football fans would get a scheduled bout between quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
New England and Green Bay won't face each other in the regular season again until 2022. Brady will be 45. Rodgers will be 38.
Brady plans to be around for the future matchup. Following Sunday night's game, the five-time Super Bowl champion reportedly told NBC Sports' Peter King that he "fully intends" on playing in the 2022 Packers-Patriots matchup.
Brady has long teased the idea of playing into his 40s before. In a 2017 Q&A with Sports Illustrated's Greg Bishop, he said, "I think my mid-40s [is a] place that I know I can get to." This past summer, he hinted at playing until 45.
Rodgers himself told SI's Albert Breer in July that he plans on playing until he's 40 "at minimum."
“I’d love to be a starter at 40," Rodgers said. "So that’d be 40 turning 41. That’d be awesome because not many guys have been to play really well to that age.”
Sunday's duel marked the second time that Rodgers and Brady have ever faced one another. (It would have been the third time had Rodgers not been injured ahead of a 2010 contest in Foxborough, when Matt Flynn threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns in his absence.)
Plenty can change between now and 2022, but for now, both quarterbacks have made it clear that they want to be in the mix when their teams are scheduled meet again. Of course, there's a chance they could potentially play each other sooner in the Super Bowl, too.