Bears fans have surprising celebrity encounter with Aaron Rodgers on street corner

Senior writer

Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 8:27 PM

When you go out to see holiday decorations, you don’t expect to see one of the greatest athletes in the world waiting to cross the street with you.

Maybe it’s even more surprising that a Green Bay Packers superstar and two Chicago Bears fans would get along so easily.

Kendra Meinert of the Green Bay Press-Gazette wrote about a fun celebrity encounter between Julia Nicoll, her 11-year-old son Peter and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Nicoll, from Mount Prospect, Illinois, took her son to look at holiday decorations in downtown Chicago on Nov. 11. The Packers played the Bears the next day. Peter told his mom he thought he saw Rodgers, a two-time MVP, waiting to cross the street with them.

“I’m whispering to him like (in a doubting tone), ‘Really? I don’t think Aaron Rodgers is standing right next to us on the corner on a Saturday evening,'” Nicoll told Meinert.

Then Nicoll looked, and sure enough, it was the quarterback you’ve probably seen four times already today on your television, trying to sell you insurance.

According to the Press-Gazette’s story, Nicoll asked, “Are you … ?” and didn’t finish the rest to avoid drawing attention to him. Rodgers replied, “I am.”

Rodgers, who was on his way to dinner reservations and taking in the city as well, talked to them about his injured collarbone and Peter apologized for being Bears fans (Rodgers told them there was no need to be sorry, since he was from Chicago). They took a picture and when other fans recognized Rodgers, the Nicolls went their way.

Nothing more fun than to be able to share a story like this one about a mom, son who ran into Aaron Rodgers in Chicago: https://t.co/s0sqluBaSA #Packers #Bears pic.twitter.com/vbUjRILnKp
— Kendra Meinert (@KendraMeinert) November 29, 2017

Meinert wrote that when Julia Nicoll stopped to text the picture of Rodgers and Peter to her husband, Rodgers caught up to them and continued along with them, asking them about Thanksgiving plans and their daughter going to University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire next year.

“He just started talking to us again like we were all neighbors and friends. We walked with him again for the next 15 minutes, 20 minutes to Michigan Avenue,” Julia Nicoll told the Press-Gazette. “The thing for me that really stood out as so awesome was he asked us questions. I would say he asked us more questions than I asked him, because I didn’t want to be nosy and because I didn’t want to invade his privacy.”

If that wasn’t enough for one night, the Nicolls later ran into Packers running back Ty Mongomery’s mother.

Not that Rodgers should be celebrated for acting like a normal human being, but it’s still a very cool gesture for someone as famous as he is to be that gracious with his time. Even with a couple Bears fans in Chicago.