It was halftime at Lambeau Field, and the Green Bay Packers trailed the Minnesota Vikings, 10-7. I ran into a team staffer at the coffee station, and he kind of smiled and said something to the effect of it it’s been a weird season, but if you’re around long enough, you see everything.

Little did he – or anyone – know that the Packers would play their fourth quarterback of the season just seven minutes into the third quarter and we would see a fourth quarter comeback end in a tie, the first for the Packers in 26 years.

We can kind of say we’ve seen everything now, can’t we?

Well, almost.

If Aaron Rodgers plays at all this season, you could put that in the "weird and wild" category of this Packers season.

People have been pining for his return essentially since he ran out of the tunnel after breaking his collarbone against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 4. Right now there’s a fever pitch that he should play on Thursday against the Detroit Lions with the NFC North hanging in the balance.

I’ll be honest – if Rodgers plays at all this season I’ll say I’ve seen everything. Football players just don’t come back from broken collarbones in the same season they broke it.

Let’s just look at recent history:

• 2012 – Joel Stave (University of Wisconsin) broke his left collarbone on Oct. 27 – the Badgers’ ninth game – and was immediately ruled out for the year. He did play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
  
  
• 2011 – Jason Campbell (Oakland Raiders) broke his right collarbone on Oct. 16 in the sixth game of the year. He was immediately ruled out for the year.
  
  
• 2010 – Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys) broke his left clavicle on Oct. 24 in the sixth game of the season. It was initially reported it was a 6-10 week injury. He didn’t play again until the next year.

But, there is reason to hold on to a string of hope as we enter the third week after Rodgers got hurt (yes, today is just the 21st day since that Monday night game): Duke University quarterback Anthony Boone broke his right collarbone on Sept. 7 but returned three games later.

But, take it with a grain of salt, as reports say Boone didn’t really look "right" until this past weekend.

I think the best Packers fans can hope for is Rodgers feels ready to go on Dec. 8 at home against the Atlanta Falcons. But the thing is, it’s a broken bone. You can make an educated guess as to when bones are supposed to heal, but every individual is different.

True, Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien and even Matt Flynn haven’t looked great as the Packers have gone 0-3-1 the last four weeks, but have some sense. Rodgers just can’t "come back." It takes time.

And recent broken collarbone history says that if he comes back at all in 2013, we’ll definitely have seen everything.