GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers knows the picture exists. He’s just not sure what’s going to happen with it.
At the moment, the Green Bay Packers don’t know, either.
When the Packers unveiled Brett Favre’s No. 4 on the Lambeau Field façade on Thanksgiving night, three eras of quarterbacking greatness were on the field: Bart Starr, the 1977 Pro Football Hall of Famer who took part in the halftime ceremony; Favre, who reconnected with the franchise in August 2014 and who’ll be inducted into the Hall on Aug. 7; and Rodgers, who was busy quarterbacking the Packers that night but whose career also has him on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
Several hours before the Nov. 26 kickoff, the three men posed for a photograph -- something that, despite their shared Green Bay lineage, had never happened before.
“It’s the three of us doing a pretty awesome picture. I’m not sure where that’s at yet, but I’m sure it’ll be out at some point,” Rodgers told former teammate A.J. Hawk in an interview on Hawk’s podcast last week. “It was good to have all three of us together. Kind of the three generations of [Packers] quarterbacks.”
Even though Starr built relationships with both quarterbacks, the three had never been photographed together in part because of Favre’s estrangement from the team following the 2008 trade that sent him to the New York Jets.
Starr befriended Favre early in Favre’s 16-year career with the Packers, and the two posed for a photo together inside Lambeau Field in 1998. Rodgers and Starr first met in 2006, and the two became close friends after Starr reached out to Rodgers during the team’s tumultuous quarterback transition during the summer of 2008.
Rodgers considers Starr a mentor and role model, having shared the stage with him during a fundraiser for Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC Fund) in 2013 and received the Bart Starr Award from him in 2014.
Packers spokesman Aaron Popkey said in an email that the Packers “have been exploring some concepts and will be working with the Starrs, Brett and Aaron to determine [the photo’s] use.”
The Packers could use the photo as a fundraising opportunity for each of the quarterbacks' charities. Starr founded the Rawhide Boys Ranch, Rodgers is heavily involved in the MACC Fund and Favre has his own foundation (Favre4Hope) and has been a longtime supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The team could also be waiting until Starr is healthy enough to resume signing autographs. Starr suffered two strokes and a heart attack in September 2014 but reached his goal of being on the field with Favre on Thanksgiving.
“I remain hopeful that Dad will again be able to resume signing later this summer,” Bart Starr Jr. wrote in a text message Monday night. “Fingers crossed.”