GREEN BAY — As it turns out, Aaron Rodgers was right. About the Green Bay Packers’ 2019 joint practices with the Houston Texans, at least. 

Back then, the Packers hadn’t had another NFL team in town for a joint practice since 2005, when the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback was a rookie first-round draft pick, Mike Sherman was the head coach and the Buffalo Bills were the guests of honor for a practice at Clarke Hinkle Field and as the quasi-opponents for the annual Family Night Scrimmage inside Lambeau Field.

At the time, joint practices — like the one the Packers and Arizona Cardinals will hold at Ray Nitschke Field on Wednesday in advance of the teams’ preseason finale on Friday night at Lambeau — were not the norm like they are in today’s NFL.

So when the Packers new head coach, Matt LaFleur, brought the Texans in for a pair of joint practices before their preseason game, it’d been 14 years since Titletown had played host to such a collaboration.

And after what he deemed to be a waste of time — at least for the Packers’ No. 1 offense — Rodgers infamously told reporters that he “wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it for another 14 years.”

LaFleur and second-year general manager Brian Gutekunst were less than thrilled that their biggest star was publicly bemoaning what they saw as worthwhile work.

Rodgers’ issue was that LaFleur had watered down the plays the Packers offense ran during the two practices against the Texans. And why did they do that? Because the Texans’ outside linebackers coach was John Pagano, whose older brother Chuck was the Chicago Bears defensive coordinator at the time.

And why did that matter? Because the Packers were set to open the season — and LaFleur’s tenure as head coach — against the Bears in Chicago. He wasn’t about to give away the element of surprise by showing the Texans a bunch of plays he intended to call in the opener — and have John Pagano tip off his big brother about it.

“Oh, yeah,” LaFleur confessed earlier this week, “that certainly affected [our approach].”

Translation: Rodgers was right.

There’ll be no such issues on Wednesday, however. How does LaFleur know? Because his younger brother, Mike, is the Cardinals’ first-year head coach.

“I think there’s certainly a trust factor there [with Mike] that the film’s not going to go anywhere. If it is, there’s going to be a problem,” Matt LaFleur said with a chuckle. “Certainly you can potentially open it up a little bit more.”

That’s what LaFleur was able to do two years after the Texans’ visit, when the New York Jets came to town. (The Packers were set to host the Cleveland Browns for joint practices in 2020, but those were wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.)

The Jets head coach at the time was Robert Saleh, who’d selected LaFleur to be the best man in his wedding and had gotten LaFleur his big break into the NFL.

Thanks to their relationship and the shared trust that the league’s other 30 teams wouldn’t be privy to either team’s playbook. Even Rodgers himself came around, saying that practicing with the Jets had yielded “good work.”

Since then, the Packers have held seven other joint practice sessions, ad have even taken their show on the road three times. They’ve collaborated with the New Orleans Saints (2022); the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots (2023); the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens (2024); and the Indianapolis Colts and the Seattle Seahawks (2025).

LaFleur said this week he’d have liked to have held another joint session with the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Broncos before those preseason road games, but it didn’t work out — making Wednesday’s work with his brother’s team all the more important.

“I think every year’s a little bit different in terms of who you’re playing,” Matt LaFleur said. “Certainly you look at the connections somebody may have. That was a great example, [with the Pagano connection] in ’19, so we kept things a little bit tighter.

“But I think every situation’s a little bit different in terms of who you’re going against and who they’ve got on their staffs and the connections between other staffs. Because I know all these guys, they all talk. But I think when it comes to this situation [with the Cardinals], I don’t have any hesitation or reservations.”

His brother isn’t worried, either.

“You have to be on the same page [with the other coach], and it’s easier to be on the same page with your brother, who you talk to five times a day anyway,” Mike LaFleur said. “That’s been really good. Having access to his main assistants, because you know them so well, the communication there is great.

“You want to send the same message to both teams. Let’s call it what it is. These are joint practices, [you can] flip a coin at what could happen sometimes. So it’s been good, [being] on the same page. The main thing, we’re going in to get work. No doubt it’s a more amped up environment because you’re going against a different opponent. But it’s time for our guys to hit somebody else.”

Both coaches have emphasized the importance of avoiding fights, especially with the league having cracked down with $500,000 fines for the Saints and Dallas Cowboys after those teams brawled at their joint practice last week.

Although the brothers didn’t initially agree on some of the logistical aspects of practice, they’re on the same page about the fighting. And like other teams, the Cardinals will take part in the Packers’ training-camp traditions, including riding kids’ bikes down to practice.

“I’ve told the coaches and players I’ve done a joint practice there before with the Jets. It’s a cool place,” said Mike LaFleur, who was Saleh’s offensive coordinator for the 2021 collaboration. “They’ve got the bikes with the kids, and we’ll do that, too. And there will be a ton of fans there.

“It’s Green Bay. What else are you going to do?”

Then, after a pause, he added, “I love it there, by the way. I do. My family will end up being there, my kids, and they just cannot wait to get to Aunt Bre’s house for all the snacks that are there.”

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