Joe Namath was 'touched' that Aaron Rodgers decided not to wear No. 12 with Jets
New York Jets icon Joe Namath told The New York Post on Wednesday that Aaron Rodgers' decision not to wear his jersey number "touched my heart a little bit."
"That shows something about the man," Namath, 79, told the newspaper. "He has a way about him, a lot of respect for the past. I was humbly grateful, you know what I mean? It felt good. It made me like (Rodgers) even more."
Rodgers, the longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback, finally joined the Jets earlier this week after several weeks of trade negotiations between the two teams. The four-time league MVP donned No. 12 – which was also Namath's jersey number – for the entirety of his career in Green Bay.
The Jets retired Namath's number in 1985, but he said in a radio interview in January that he would approve of the team unretiring it if Rodgers wanted to wear it. Rodgers, however, declined the offer in deference to Namath, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Jets to their only Super Bowl title.
"There are some iconic names that have played here, probably none more iconic than No. 12," Rodgers said at his introductory news conference Wednesday afternoon.
"I heard what he said about unretiring his number, but to me, 12 is Broadway Joe and I didn't want to even go down that path."
Rodgers will instead wear No. 8, which was his college jersey number at Cal.
Though switching numbers seems to be a relatively small gesture, Namath told The New York Post he appreciated it from Rodgers, who seems likely to join Namath in the Hall of Fame at a later date.
"First time I met him I liked him," Namath told the newspaper of Rodgers. "And I’ll tell you what, I’ve not seen anybody play better than him the times over the last 10, 15 years I’ve been watching."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Namath praises Aaron Rodgers for switching jersey number with Jets
