Imagine having to watch a nemesis, a long-time hated rival, celebrate winning a championship on your home field. The Dallas Cowboys had to suffer that indignity back in January 2011, when Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in AT&T Stadium.
Rodgers was just in his third season as a starter that year, and the prevailing sentiment at the time was he had just unlocked the first of many Lombardi hoists. The following regular season saw him and the Pack go 15-1, but they were upset in the playoffs. They failed again the next season, and the next, and Rodgers has been chasing that feeling while breaking record after record ever since. 15 years later and Rodgers has decided this season will be his last chasing that dragon.
On Wednesday, Rodgers announced the 2026 season with the Pittsburgh Steelers will be his farewell tour. And as such, it likely means that he and the Dallas Cowboys are never going to cross paths again.
The Steelers aren’t on the Cowboys’ 2026 schedule, so unless there’s a shocking Super Bowl matchup, Rodgers will finish his career with a 6-3 record against Dallas. His stats are stunning, as he threw for 14 touchdowns against a lonely interception, with a 103.6 passer rating.
Rodgers, who has earned just shy of $400 million in salary across the course of his career, has been a money player ever since he took over under center, succeeding Hall of Famer Brett Favre as QB for the Pack. He has cashed in against many a foe, which is crystalized that his gaudy stats against Dallas aren’t even among the best in his career totals against a given foe.
Rodgers has a better passer rating against 11 different opponents. For his career, Rodgers currently sits fifth all time in passing yards with 66,274; a 2,000-yard cushion on Matthew Stafford, who hasn’t announced any plans to walk away after this year.
Rodgers also has 527 passing touchdowns, which ranks fourth. If he plays a full season, he’ll move into third by passing Peyton Manning (539). But none of those scores will be against the Cowboys.
Dallas faces an AFC North foe, the Baltimore Ravens, but that’s due to the 17th game rotation of playing the same-place finisher from one opposing conference each season. That means the last memory Cowboys fans will have of Rodgers will be his 2022 OT win, 31-28, when Rodgers came back from a 28-14 fourth-quarter deficit, throwing two touchdown passes to WR Christian Watson.
The Cowboys went for it on 4th-and-3 with six minutes left in overtime, but turned the ball over at the Green Bay 35. Rodgers took the ball and drove down into field goal range to escape with the victory.
It was his third-straight win in the series, as Rodgers actually won six of his final seven matchups with Dallas. He never faced them across his two seasons with the New York Jets, and not now entering his second with Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: $396 million legend won’t be able to hurt Cowboys feelings anymore
Reporting by K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
