PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – They have combined to play 453 NFL games, thrown for 110,704 yards with 774 touchdowns and each with a Super Bowl title while being named Super Bowl MVP. Thursday night 40-year-old Joe Flacco faces 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers in Cincinnati.
“I think it’s great for all the old guys,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “I know when I watch other sports, maybe it’s because I’m the older guy, I tend to pull for the older guys to win, win championships. I've been friends with Steph (Curry) for a long time. Steph is one of the older guys in the NBA now. Anytime the Warriors are playing I'm always pulling for Steph to ball out for them to win.”
“It’s one thing you guys can’t talk about this week in terms of me being older,” Flacco said with a smile. “It’s pretty neat, Aaron’s been in the league a few years longer than me but we both started playing in 2008.”
“It’s great, I’ve known Joe for a long time,” Rodgers said. “He’s been a great ambassador for the league. He’s had a great career and it’s fun we are still playing.”
It’s Flacco’s second start with the Bengals after being traded there from Cleveland last week. While he didn’t get the win, Flacco was 29-45 for 219 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“I've just always enjoyed watching him throw the ball,” Rodgers said. “I mean, he's got one of the prettiest, prettiest balls, tight spiral, great deep ball thrower.”
“He is one of the kind of old school, 2000s, ‘90s prototypical quarterbacks. When I was coming in the game, it was the big guys who had the big arms. Now you're seeing, there's some smaller guys. There's obviously some really athletic guys playing the position. I think he would probably agree with me, sometimes when you're watching other guys play, you feel like they're playing a different position because of the kind of athleticism and the way the game is called. There's more read option called you're seeing more the college game to the NFL.”
“But I've always enjoyed watching Joe play and have a lot of respect for him in his game.”
Feeling better
Rodgers said he feels like his health keeps improving, every week he’s starting to loosen up and feel more like himself. That comes from having what he called a great break on the bye week spending time with his Body Work guru and said he will do it a few more times this season.