There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Ringo Starr answers a piece of fan mail from Marge, decades after she wrote to him. So by the standard of a Beatle, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is pretty quick in responding to his fan mail.
Still, when 15-year-old fan Nick Stigsell got a Rodgers autograph in the mail last week, it had been so long since he asked for it that he had forgotten he ever made the request.
When the self-addressed envelope with Stigsell’s name on it, containing a signed Rodgers rookie card, finally arrived, it took Stigsell a moment to remember that when he was 10, he had mailed the card to the Packers’ headquarters with a request that Rodgers sign it and send it back to him. Stigsell told Michele Steele of ESPN that in 2007 he thought that Rodgers, who was Brett Favre’s backup, would get fewer autograph requests and therefore be more likely to respond.
“I was really surprised because I don’t even remember sending it, so to get it five years later I was just really surprised,” Stigsell said. “I think I probably thought that since he’s a backup that he’d get less mail so there’d be a greater chance of him returning it. I figured that if I sent it to Favre I probably wouldn’t get it back. But since it’s Aaron Rodgers, the backup, I’d get it back.”
Stigsell said he plans to hold on to the card -- unless some sports memorabilia collector blows him away with an offer.
“I don’t think I’m going to sell it unless I’m going to get a lot of money for it, like if it could pay for college,” he said.
An autographed card paying for college is probably too much to ask for, but it is a cool memento for a Packers fan. But the Packers caution other fans that if you want a player’s autograph, you’re a lot more likely to get it by attending training camp or a fan convention. Most fans who send a card in the mail won’t get an autograph back, even if they’re willing to wait five years.