Aaron Rodgers could follow Tom Brady's blueprint one day if he leaves Green Bay

Every quarterback would love to have a Tom Brady-type career. The records. The rings. The staying power as he reaches an astonishing 14th conference title game in his 21st NFL season. Those are all accolades and accomplishments which may never be surpassed.

But there is one feat Brady will achieve on Sunday that his opposing quarterback will be very mindful of. For the first time in his career Brady will play for a chance to reach a Super Bowl not in a Patriots jersey, but in Bucs garb.

For Aaron Rodgers, it could serve as a very clear signal that even after a long and legendary career with one franchise, success can be found elsewhere. In other conferences and cities. In other colors.

Because Rodgers has known since the spring of 2020 that his chances of finishing his time in the league where it began, in Green Bay, are slimming. He’s played at an MVP level this season and reaches his fifth NFC Championship Game, perhaps fueled just a bit by that epiphany.

Rodgers still has three more years left on his contract with the Packers after this one ends, but the moment the team used a first-round pick to select quarterback Jordan Love in last April’s draft, the end of his tenure in Green Bay became more of an inevitability than a vague possibility. He fended it off this season – Love didn’t play a single snap – but there is no telling when Rodgers might play his last game in green and gold. Just as there was no telling when Brady would play his last game in New England’s blue and silver.

Rodgers said he is "trying to stay present, especially this year as much as anything." But he also is keenly aware that this could be his final run for a Lombardi Trophy while playing for Lombardi’s old team. In fact, he seems excited by it.

"I hope there's more opportunities, but I don't know," he said this week. "I mean, I really don't. That stuff is out of my control. My future is a beautiful mystery I think … To me it is a beautiful mystery what happens down the line, but there'll be a time when we meet that future, and right now I'm just going to enjoy the present."

Seeing Brady in action with the Bucs on Sunday will reveal one possible way that mystery can play out. A year ago it was Brady whose future with the franchise he’d become so intertwined with was uncertain.

Brady, of course, had more control over what happened than Rodgers does now. Rodgers is still under contract, whereas Brady was a free agent. According to Spotrac, Green Bay, which signed Rodgers to an extension in 2018, can first responsibly think about parting ways with Rodgers in a financial sense in 2022. That’s when any dead money against the salary cap would be less than the cap number of having him active on the roster. But in 2021, Rodgers figures to have a hefty cap number of over $37 million. With a salary cap expected to be lower than it is this season due to the financial implications of the pandemic, Rodgers alone could account for more than 20 percent of the Packers’ allotment. Releasing him would be foolish … but not unthinkable. Especially if they like what they have seen behind closed doors from Love.

Rodgers, at age 37 and playing some of his best football in 2020, would become the biggest free agent in NFL history.

Brady having switched organizations and returned to this point in the postseason with the Bucs may provide a blueprint for such high-tier quarterbacks who get to make a similar choice, just as Peyton Manning having picked the Broncos as the team he wanted to finish his career with (and win a Super Bowl title with) likely did for Brady. Both had criteria that were required. Both wanted to find teams with coaches and rosters in place for an immediate championship run.

"I looked at the whole situation and there were a lot of reasons to come here," Brady said this week of signing with the Bucs around 10 months ago. "It’s been fun being here. I had a great time in New England, too. I’ve had a great 21 years. I’m very blessed. I’m a lucky guy. The fact that I’m still playing football is a blessing and I have a lot of great teammates that I’ve played with over the years and a great group this year."

Rodgers said he understood his new dynamic with the Packers when they drafted Love.

"My sincere desire to start and finish with the same organization, just as it has with many other players over the years, may not be a reality at this point," he said in May. "I still believe in myself and have a strong desire to play into my 40s. And I'm just not sure how that all works together at this point."

On Sunday, he can look across the field at Brady and perhaps catch a glimpse of what it might look like. Then again, he can also look at his own history and see what changing uniforms means.

The last time the Packers hosted an NFC Championship Game wound up being the final game for another Green Bay icon. Brett Favre lost to the Giants in 2008; Rodgers, then the understudy pushing the veteran out the door, was on the sideline. Favre would announce his retirement that offseason, then unretire, then get traded to the Jets for one season before he signed with the Vikings. He made it back to the NFC Championship Game with the Vikings in 2010 before losing to the Saints.

Given all of that, and all of the uncertainty that the "beautiful mystery" of Rodgers’ future holds, the quarterback said he is not going into Sunday’s game with any added burden wondering if this might be his final championship game for the Packers, his final postseason game for the Packers or even his final game for the Packers.

"Obviously I put pressure on myself to perform every single week, and I think there's a lot to be said for being able to harness that pressure and fear of failure and focus into a real positive," he said. "That's something you learn over the years. But I don't feel any extra pressure going into this one."

Why should he? If he wins, he goes back to the Super Bowl. If he loses, Brady goes there in a new uniform showing the world – and Rodgers – once again that there can be an afterlife even for aging football deities who leave their realms to begin anew.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.