Aaron Rodgers will not wear the same jersey number as Joe Namath did as the New York Jets quarterback, but he does hope to emulate Broadway Joe by bringing a Super Bowl championship to the franchise.

But Rodgers didn’t guarantee it.

The Jets introduced Rodgers as their new QB during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. He came aboard via a trade with the Green Bay Packers, where Rodgers spent the first 18 seasons of his NFL career.

Rodgers won four NFL Most Valuable Player awards and one Super Bowl with the Packers, all while wearing No. 12 on his jersey. But Rodgers said he did not ask the Jets to consider letting him continue to wear that number during the 2023 season.

No player has worn No. 12 for the Jets since Namath, and the team retired the jersey in 1985, the year the former Alabama quarterback entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“There’s some iconic names that have played here, probably none more iconic than No. 12,” Rodgers said. “And I heard what he said about unretiring his number. But to me, 12 is Broadway Joe. I didn’t even want to go down that path, and I’m excited about going back to my college number.”

Even though Namath had said he would be fine with the Jets allowing Rodgers to wear No. 12, the new quarterback is going to be No. 8, which is the number that Rodgers wore at California.

New York hasn’t been to the playoffs since the 2010 season, and at 12 years, they own the longest current postseason drought in the NFL.

The Jets have played in one Super Bowl. After capturing the AFL championship, New York played the NFL champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III on Jan. 12, 1969, in Miami.

The Green Packers had won the first two Super Bowls, dispatching the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 to cap the 1966 campaign before downing the AFL’s Oakland Raiders 33-14 to finish the 1967 season.

But Namath famously guaranteed that New York would upend the heavily favored Colts in Super Bowl III, and he won the Most Valuable Player Award for their 16-7 victory.

Namath had spurned the NFL coming out of Alabama in 1965. After being drafted at No. 12 by the St. Louis Cardinals, Namath signed the most lucrative contract in pro football history at that time with the AFL’s Jets.

That wasn’t the type of money that NFL owners wanted to have to pay and played a part in making the idea of absorbing the AFL teams more appealing. The Super Bowl victories by the Jets in Super Bowl III and the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV gave legitimacy to the leagues’ merger, which already had been planned by that time for the 1970 season.

“I think an exciting draw to this as well is being part of something special,” Rodgers said. “I grew up watching old VHS tapes of the Super Bowls, and so, obviously, I know about the guarantee and Broadway Joe. It’s been a while since then. I noticed walking in this morning that the Super Bowl III trophy is looking a little lonely.”

While playing with the Jets from 1965 through 1976, Namath was the AFL Rookie of the Year in 1965 and the AFL Player of the Year in 1968 and 1969.

In 1967, Namath became the first player in a U.S. pro league to pass for 4,000 yards in a season.

Namath was selected for five AFL All-Star games and NFL Pro Bowls as New York’s quarterback. All the other Jets quarterbacks combined have had five such selections.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.