It’s been another stellar season for the Packers. At 13-3, Green Bay has locked up the NFC’s number 1 seed, with divisional dominance enhanced by hard fought wins over Cleveland, Baltimore, and the Rams. All that’s left to do for the moment – bar a dead rubber game at Detroit – is ruminate on potential playoff opponents after the bye week, pore the draft boards for next season and pray to the football gods that Chicago renews Matt Nagy’s contract. So, why not have a look at some just-for-fun stuff concerning should-be MVP Aaron Rodgers with a look at his endorsement deals.
State Farm
State Farm is by far and away Aaron’s most famous deal – he’s been on national screens advertising the insurance company since 2011. At an estimated $2-3m per annum, it could be argued his deal doesn’t mean he has to be so worried about checking his insurance for the best rates – but it probably compensates him adequately for having the Bill Swerski superfans falling asleep on him on an airplane and having cute elementary school kids assassinate him by telling him playing football isn’t a job. Probably.
Sharpie
In 2018, Rodgers featured in Sharpie’s ‘Uncap The Possibilities’ campaign alongside fellow superstar athletes Chris Paul, Alex Morgan and Aaron Judge. The ads gave each pro time to talk about charitable projects close to their heart – Morgan brought attention to UNICEF Kid Power and CP3. Judge took the opportunity to highlight teen leadership program #ICanHelp and Rodgers shot a commercial focusing on his work with The Wounded Warrior Project in honor of his grandfather’s military service. It certainly won’t be the most lucrative deal he’s put marker to paper on, but is likely one of the most worthy.
Pizza Hut
Way back in 2012, Aaron took to the screen to advertise Pizza Hut’s Big Dinner Box special. This could be seen as a slightly cheeky move from the Hut – he was arguably the league’s most high-profile player at the time as reigning MVP and it somewhat stole the thunder from Papa John’s campaign as an official league sponsor. Especially as he could be seen as an expert on the subject – he joked at the time “…having such a broad knowledge of cheese, playing in Green Bay…this was one of those situations where that knowledge was really seen as an asset.”
Adidas
NFL players’ shoe deals have always been small beans compared to the NBA and traditionally this has let smaller companies snap up athletes to gain exposure for way less money – think back to Dan Marino sporting Pony, or Walter Payton in KangaROOS. When Trevor Lawrence signed a multi-year deal with Adidas it was noted that he was joining a “stacked roster” of NFL players, including Rodgers. This same language applied to an NBA rookie would call popular shoes to mind, and would suggest major apparel lines for the players in question. But where the NFL is concerned, the only reason to truly care about Rodgers or any other athlete having an Adidas deal is if you play competitive football and want to wear their shoes. Still, moving Rodgers over from Nike in 2015 could certainly be seen as a scalp, and was helpful to Adidas’ cleated shoes reputation, initially forged with their groundbreaking Predator soccer footwear.
Rodgers’ endorsement deals don’t end there – he’s also fronted campaigns for Ford, clothing brand IZOD, Prevea Healthcare, Bergstrom Automotive and audio giants Bose, amongst others. If Green Bay go deep into this postseason, more will likely follow and if he does take the MVP title ahead of the likes of Cooper Kupp and Joe Burrow (Comeback Player of the year award for the Bengals QB, maybe?) then keep stacking the contracts even higher. He won’t be thinking about any of that just now, though. Everything’s going to be focused on still being around on February 13th.
