GREEN BAY, Wis. _ The lives of backup quarterbacks in the National Football League hinge on moral quandary. All of them long for the chance to play in an actual game, to be under center themselves and test their skills against a real defense as 70,000 fans scream in celebration or groan with disappointment. But in order for that to happen, the player ahead of them must get hurt or benched, and neither outcome is enjoyable when the starter often is a friend.
For every Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning there is a Brett Hundley, Matt Cassel or Curtis Painter waiting in the wings, hoping and not hoping for a chance to play. From the moment a depth chart is released until the moment they start a real game, the careers of backups are defined by conflicting emotions.
"Aaron is my brother, so it's hard to see him go down," Hundley said after the Green Bay Packers lost to the Minnesota Vikings 23-10 Sunday. "I'm praying for him. I pray for him every game and I wish nothing but the best for him. ... It's a tricky situation, especially when the starting quarterback goes down. I've been preparing for this moment for a long time now."
Hundley's life changed when the weight of Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr pinned Rodgers to the turf at U.S. Bank Stadium in the first quarter last weekend. Rodgers suffered a broken right collarbone that will require surgery; he may miss the remainder of the 2017 season.
In an instant, Hundley vaulted from a backup quarterback who never had started a regular-season game to a player tasked with leading the team many picked to win the Super Bowl. It is a moment Hundley has waited for since the Packers drafted him in the fifth round three years ago. But it is also a moment in which most backups have failed in recent memory.
Dating to 2000, nine teams have been forced to play five or more games without an injured quarterback who already had won, or would eventually win, a Most Valuable Player award. The results aren't pretty:
_ Seven of the nine teams missed the playoffs entirely.
_ Six of the nine teams finished with seven wins or fewer.
_ The two teams that reached the playoffs _ the 2013 Packers and the 2000 Rams _ failed to advance.
_ The overall record of the nine teams is 57-86-1.
_ The combined record of backup quarterbacks is 34-53-1.
"At the end of the day, I will state no one replaces '12,' " left tackle David Bakhtiari said of Rodgers. "He's arguably the best player to play football, particularly at his position."
It means that losing an MVP quarterback is almost always a death knell, which doesn't bode well for the Packers. Even if they rally around Hundley and turn their 4-2 record into a playoff berth, their dreams of winning the Super Bowl likely shattered in Minnesota.
"Anytime you lose a guy who was having an MVP-caliber season," outside linebacker Clay Matthews said, " ... you can only help to think about the what ifs."
Here is an in-depth look at the nine teams whose MVP quarterbacks suffered significant injuries since 2000:
