Getting to meet someone that you used to look up to growing up is an incredible experience in and of itself. Sports help take that experience to an entirely different level, especially the sport of football.
For Jets quarterback Zach Wilson, the trip to Lambeau Field was more than just another chance to play a football game. It was a chance to go to battle against the quarterback he grew up idolizing.
“This guy has been my idol since I was eight years old,” Wilson said of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whom he always tried to model his game after. “So anytime I watched football and he was the quarterback, I copied everything. I tried to be just like him.”
Even before the game, Wilson’s dad, Mike, took to Twitter to express his excitement over his son playing against his idol.
Dreams do come true! I can’t tell you how many times @ZachWilson and I have watched Rogers on tv or studied his every movement on YouTube. Today he gets a chance to play against him. Parents if your child has a dream, embrace it. Sometimes dreams do come true. pic.twitter.com/wJlAMpNFMu
— Mike Wilson (@wilsonohana) October 16, 2022
The photo was from joint practices during the 2021 preseason. This time around, Wilson got to play an actual game against Rodgers. And while Wilson didn’t quite outperform Rodgers, number-wise, he came away with the biggest prize of the day: the victory, as the Jets defeated the Packers, 27-10, for their third straight win to move to 4-2 on the year.
After the game, Wilson got to meet up with Rodgers and the two embraced a hug together as Wilson got to soak in the moment of being around the quarterback that helped shape his childhood and early football career.
.@ZachWilson shares a moment with @AaronRodgers12 after defeating his childhood idol. pic.twitter.com/lBA9XEnf6j
— NFL (@NFL) October 16, 2022
“Sharing that moment after the game was really cool,” said Wilson about the postgame meeting with Rodgers. “Just telling him good job. I’d love to sit there and chat with him all day and just ask him kind of what he has for me and all that stuff, but it was just a cool moment.”
