Admitting my true issue with Aaron Rodgers joining the Steelers
When the possibility of Aaron Rodgers joining the Pittsburgh Steelers first came out in March, I was adamantly against it. The Steelers didn’t need a player like Rodgers and his inflated salary that he would demand. His “me first“ attitude in the locker room was not something that the Steelers should welcome. It was just a bad idea.
Fast forward three months and I feel completely different. Once the salary situation didn’t seem to be nearly what I thought it would, and I looked more into how Rodgers was viewed by past teammates, and I thought maybe it wasn’t so bad. I even went as far to state the unpopular opinion that Rodgers was the best-case scenario the Steelers could have at quarterback for 2025.
So where did my initial feelings come from?
The easy answer is to say that I never liked Aaron Rodgers as a player. Thinking about it, I don’t know that I always dislike Rodgers, but I didn’t want him anywhere close to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Was it because of his viewpoints on various non-football related topics? Was it the darkness retreats? Was it just his overall quirkiness?
It didn’t matter. If it had to do with Aaron Rodgers, I didn’t like it.
After hearing so many complaints from Steelers’ Nation, although there are still plenty that are more than on board with his arrival, I wonder if a lot of people are coming out at it the same way I am. I finally admitted to myself my ultimate problem with Aaron Rodgers…
It began on a Sunday evening in February. The date was February 6, 2011. Only two years removed from their last Super Bowl win, the Pittsburgh Steelers were facing the Green Bay Packers at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. Even though the Packers were three point favorites going into the game, I was ready for the Steelers to hoist the Lombardi trophy for a seventh time.
Aaron Rodgers screwed that up.
I admit that every little thing that Aaron Rodgers did after that point made me not like him. He was a quarterback that defeated my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. There was no hope for him.
If Aaron Rodgers had been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers since that 2010 season, I don’t know if all the other little things would have bothered me that much. Instead, all those things were added to the list as to why I didn’t like the player who beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl. I can openly admit now that is the number one thing as to why I did not care for Aaron Rodgers.
So am I wrong for constantly hoping this quarterback who beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV would fail? Not for the last 14 seasons. But I’m definitely not going to root for him to fail this year.
To admit my consistency, I can’t stand Troy Aikman either. Even though the Steelers were huge underdog in Super Bowl XXX, he’s still a quarterback who beat them. He will always be dead to me. Even as an announcer I don’t like him. Troy Aikman sucks… because he beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
So I’m ready to admit why I wanted to see Aaron Rodgers fail at every point of his career since that fateful night in February 2011. I’m not going to deny it. But now rather than keeping the Steelers from the Super Bowl, he is tasked with trying to get them there to win another one. Although I think it’s still a long-shot if they do, it’s the only acceptable way, at least in my eyes, that it would be bearable for Aaron Rodgers to be a two-time Super Bowl champion.
Thu 24 Jul 2025, 1355 hours
I’ve been to St. Vincent College, not once to see the Steelers. Not much shade over there. My H.S. Math teacher really liked visiting the campus.
The reason why I don’t like Aaron Rodgers is clear. He embodies virtually every characteristic that makes me not like a lot rich and famous people to begin with. By most accounts, Rodgers is arrogant and professionally selfish. He appears to occupy the same “I am rich and famous so I must know more than you do” space as do a lot of Hollywood types. While this can be said of a lot of athletes, Aaron Rodgers seems to take things to the next level.
Grace and humility are wonderful traits. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t appear have an ounce of either. Regarding quarterbacking skills, Mason Rudolph can learn a whole lot from Aaron Rodgers. Regarding grace and humility though? Rodgers could learn an awful lot from Rudolph in that regard.
I think he hinders 2026’s qb chase. He gets 1-3 more wins than Mason. If we know he doesn’t help win a Super Bowl (I guess never say never) what is the point? That is my main objection to signing him. Wasn’t a fan of his before either mainly because his arrogance and me first attitude, but I’m already over it once I figured he’d end up in Pittsburgh. I know you don’t want to just throw away seasons, so I totally understand why they made the move. It’ll be Steelers football, so I’ll be rooting for him on sundays. In the wide words of big bro scho… can’t wait! Here we go
Yeah, AARod’s not gonna affect the ’26 drafting of a QB much, IMO, unless he plays really well and is granted a new contract. There is always future draft capital to trade, just need to find a trading partner and a target to draft, and hope that guy falls to where you’re choosing.
Roethlisberger said +4 wins, McFadden said +2 wins, and you say +1-3 wins will be provided by AARod as compared to Rudolph. If so, then that’s good. It is the idea to win games in pursuit of a championship. Is that not the business the Steelers are in? Playing football to win?
11 wins should be a cinch. Worth looking forward to.
I believe in winning, period. Once you start playing the draft position game you are in trouble. Sometimes you can climb out of it sometimes you cannot. I look at teams like the Buffalo Bills. They had the Kelly teams that couldn’t get over the hump then went without a play berth from 2000-2016. If you talk playoff wins they went from 1996-2019 without winning. A team that went to 4 straight Super Bowls fell off the earth for 20 years.
You can think that something like that can’t happen to the Steelers, but Buffalo drafted a 2nd, 3rd, and two 1st round QB’s before drafting Allen.
In my book every win is a blessing, and you shouldn’t take it for granted as a fan.