At this point, any hope that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers can come back and play this season should be considered quite a long shot.

Rodgers had his right collarbone broken two weeks ago. Then, in an episode of Conan O’Brien’s show “Conan” that will air Thursday night, Rodgers casually dropped that he has 13 screws in his collarbone after surgery.

“I’m good now. 13 screws later and here I am,” Rodgers said.





To ESPN Wisconsin’s Jason Wilde, Rodgers was a bit coy, saying “It’s TV. Sometimes you exaggerate. And then sometimes, you tell the truth.” So maybe Rodgers was playing it up. He said it right before playing video games with a comedian on late-night television, so he wasn’t exactly under oath.

But let’s say there were 13 screws inserted. It’s really hard to believe he could return in two months to play football. And at some point, one has to wonder if the injury will have any affect Rodgers for the rest of his career. Even if the exact number wasn’t 13, it’s still a tough injury for a quarterback.

Rodgers is practically as complete a quarterback as we’ve ever seen. He’s a good athlete, understands the game very well, has great vision, and also has a cannon of a right arm. Would any of his physical gifts be impacted by a collarbone injury that was so bad it (at least in Rodgers’ words to O’Brien) needed 13 screws to repair? Rodgers will be 34 in December and injuries heal more slowly as you age, even for an elite athlete like Rodgers. We don’t want to think about Rodgers losing anything physically because he’s so entertaining to watch, but it’s at least a minor concern after an injury like that.

For now we’ll just hope that Rodgers heals and is as good as ever when he comes back, and also hope to not get stuck behind him at a metal detector.

Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone on Oct. 15 against the Vikings. (AP) More

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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