Aaron Rodgers hung up his Green Bay Packers jersey several years ago now, but the moves around the NFL since then clearly haven't lessened his distaste for the longtime rival Chicago Bears. Case in point, while everyone was anxiously awaiting an injury update on Rodgers for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 12 at Soldier Field, he made sure to let even the cameramen inside the Bears' stadium know exactly how he felt about them.
And all it took was one finger. In a hilarious update from ESPN insider Dan Graziano from Chicago, Rodgers apparently took the field to get a light jog in, but didn't hesitate to flip the middle finger at the rolling cameras (though, somehow, there isn't any video yet). Hilariously, Graziano also made sure to keep us as updated as possible on Rodgers' left wrist injury, noting that he flipped the bird with his right hand, not the left.
Aaron Rodgers arrived at Solider Field about 20 minutes ago, walked one lap around the field, flipped off a couple of the cameras that were filming and went back inside. Used his right hand to flip the bird, so unclear if he could do it with his left. Status for today’s game…
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) November 23, 2025
Aaron Rodgers won't get the chance to torture the Bears again
Middle finger or not, there were reports leading up to the Steelers-Bears matchup that Rodgers was all but itching to play against a team that he's so thoroughly dominated in his career that he's been listed as Chicago's "owner" on Wikipedia on numerous occasions. After all, the future Hall of Fame quarterback does have a career 25-5 record against the Bears in his career, with one of those wins coming in the postseason.
But Rodgers won't suit up for the Week 12 matchup, sadly, and help keep the rivalry between team and torturer renewed, at least for this year. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed before kickoff on Sunday that his veteran quarterback wouldn't be able to take the field as he tried to get himself ready to play through the wrist injury.
In Rodgers' stead, Mason Rudolph will be under center for Pittsburgh. To some Steelers fans, that's a blessing. To most fans outside of Pittsburgh, though, getting robbed of another chance to see this rivalry take shape between Rodgers and the Bears is just a missed opportunity. And the worst part of that is we don't really know if we'll get one of these opportunities to see it again.
Even in his career twilight, the Aaron Rodgers-Bears rivalry won't die
Talk to any Bears fan, and they speak about Rodgers like he's the football boogeyman — only with more hatred in their hearts harbored toward him than any fictitious monster. That's probably because his terrorizing of Chicago has been anything but fiction.
Rodgers has more wins against the Bears than against any team throughout his career. He's thrown 64 touchdown passes when facing Chicago in his career, the most he's thrown against any single team, all while also only throwing 10 interceptions in 29 regular-season meetings. He's also thrown for 6,965 yards and rushed for 313 yards and two touchdowns. And yes, it's again worth mentioning that he's beaten the Bears 24 times in the regular season and once in the playoffs compared to just five losses.
Frankly, we just don't get this as often in the modern NFL as we once did. There are team rivalries, just as the Bears and Packers will always hate one another. But Rodgers has transcended the Packers element of that and developed his own personal feud with an entire franchise and, frankly, an entire city.
This, however, could be Rodgers' last NFL season. And even if it's not, a return to the Steelers for the 2026 season wouldn't have the Bears on the schedule. So again, Sunday would've been potentially the last time that we would've seen Rodgers play his personal rival, much less getting the chance to do so in Chicago. It flat-out stinks that we don't get to see that happen.
To be clear, there's a large part of Bears fans that probably aren't mad at that. Facing Mason Rudolph instead of the future Hall of Famer who's haunted your favorite team for two decades at this point probably sounds pretty good. At the same time, from a more objective or neutral fan approach who loves football, we all deserve to see this rivalry play out one more time.
And yes, we need more than Rodgers flipping off cameras for that to wholly be the case, even if it's a window into how things have always been between him and the Bears — and how they'll likely always be as well.