Aaron Rodgers hopes to play until he’s 45 like Tom Brady

Tom Brady hopes to make NFL history with his longevity, and Aaron Rodgers thinks he can match it.

“I saw Tom at the [Kentucky] Derby and I asked him how long he was going to play,” Rodgers told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal earlier this week. “Then I kind of subtracted my age from the age he’s going to be at when he finishes and I figure I’ve got about 12 more years left. I’ve got plenty of time.”

Rodgers, 33, has played 12 seasons in the NFL but sat on the bench for the first three seasons of his career while Brett Favre finished his career with the Green Bay Packers. In Rodgers’ nine seasons as the starter, he’s earned six trips to the Pro Bowl and has avoided any major injuries.

But if either Brady or Rodgers played into their mid-40s, it would be an unprecedented feat. Warren Moon once started 10 games in the year he turned 42, while Brett Favre and Vinny Testaverde each started at age 41.

Could Brady actually make it three years further than Moon and get all the way to 45?

“Yeah. And if he can, I’ll try to as well,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers and Brady have played each other just once in their NFL careers — a 2014 meeting at Lambeau Field where the Packers won 26-21. Rodgers was sidelined with a concussion when the two teams met in 2010 and was still behind Favre on the depth chart in 2006.

The two have still met plenty of times off the field, though, including at the Kentucky Derby where both had to deal with long lines of fans looking for autographs and selfies.

And despite not facing him often, Rodgers clearly has admiration for Brady, calling him the “golden standard” at quarterback and telling Fox Sports that he uses the New England quarterback as a model for how to handle the offseason. If Rodgers continues to follow that path, he believes he can follow Brady straight into the longevity record books.