Rodgers joins 500 club in Packers win
Aaron Rodgers became just the fifth NFL player to throw for 500 touchdown passes on Sunday, joining the likes of Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
“That’s a fun number. That’s a lot of touchdowns,” said Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers after he threw his 500th passing touchdown in the NFL.
There are only four other quarterbacks who have managed to throw for 500 + touchdowns, and none of them spent their first three years in the league on the bench. Rodgers did. He’s in his 17th year in the NFL, but has only been a starter for 14 of those seasons, making this feat all the more impressive.
Rodgers’ 500th touchdown pass came at the perfect moment, in crunch time. The Packers were down by seven against the New England Patriots when he tossed a back-shoulder pass to rookie wide receiver Romeo Doubs.
“I told them during the week, ‘I don’t want you guys expecting back shoulders. I’m sure they watched the preseason tape, so I want you to try to go on top,’” said Rodgers. “And the timing that he had was excellent because he really tried to win back on top of the ball. He wasn’t waiting for the back shoulder, so he’s got really strong hands.”
Rodgers joins Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks to hit the 500 touchdown mark. Favre, who spent 20 seasons in the NFL, retired with 508 TD passes, and it’s very likely that Rodgers will surpass that number before the end of the season.
“It means I’ve played a long time, a lot of different guys involved in that,” said Rodgers. “I’m not sure if I could name all of them. I could probably name many of them, but fun to get Romeo on that one, especially on that really great play by him.”
The Packers got the win over the Patriots in overtime, 27-24.