It’s like poetry, it rhymes.
It is so weird to think that 15 years ago Rodgers and McCarthy became our heroes when they took down the Ben Roethlisberger Rape Redemption Tour in the 2010 season. McCarthy was a visionary offensive mind; Rodgers was the new upcoming GOAT. Flash forward those 15 years and now Mike McCarthy is viewed as a has-been and Rodgers is the most annoying man in football well past his prime. And they came together again, on the very team they vanquished for their greatest career achievement.
It brings me no joy to say this, but if they go and beat the Packers in the Super Bowl this year, that might be the funniest timeline.
I don’t really think we have much to worry about there though. To be honest, I’m not sure why Rodgers came back. Last year would have been a very sensible place to retire. Rodgers gave it one last push, managed to squeak into the playoffs, and promptly ate shit. Tomlin cracked and quit. The Steelers would hire McCarthy and everyone would give a resounding “meh.” Rodgers saw his shadow and decided on 6 more weeks of not making a decision.
I did not expect him to come back. He still has a brilliant football brain but his body is old and flimsy and he can’t quite execute his art form anymore. There were no real suitors who would want him outside Pittsburgh. A one year rental on a guy far past his prime who would demand to be a starter? Rodgers isn’t Joe Flacco, he’s not happy to just play anywhere, he is not riding the bench.
I was also under the impression Rodgers and McCarthy didn’t like each other much after the Green Bay divorce. Maybe my impression was wrong, or maybe time just healed the wound enough to give them both nostalgia for each other. Rodgers came back. We get one last ride (for real this time) with the former Packer Partners.
Again…I don’t know why. The Steelers need a rebuild more than anything else, especially at QB. The lack of QB has been the #1 problem holding this team back ever since the final bad years of Big Ben. The Steelers have always felt like a top-10 QB season away from meaningful playoffs during this past decade. The last thing they need is old man Rodgers under center past his bedtime. Rodgers is going to put them exactly where they don’t want to be: the middle. He’s not bad enough to flop. He’s no longer good enough to carry. Rodgers must just not want to give up football. The greats usually can’t accept when the greatness is gone. But unlike Brady, Rodgers appears to have hobbies outside of football. Doing weird drugs in the woods and podcast appearances. He was relatively quiet last year as far as being Aaron Rodgers goes, like he had accepted his place in the current football world. He seemed more at peace. He must need one more swift kick in the nuts.
The defense is another year older, they made no massive free agency splashes. They got trolled in the draft by Philadelphia taking Makai Lemon after the Steelers already called him to say they’d pick him. Rodgers got screwed out of a first-round WR again. The entire team now has to learn new systems and schemes. This is a rebuild/reset year. The Steelers aren’t winning the Super Bowl. The Steelers are going to enter 2027 in the same mediocre cycle they cannot but desperately must escape. Seems like the fans know it too: the temperature amongst the western PA pierogi stuffers is tepid. Nobody wants another roughly .500 season where they just miss or get blasted from the playoffs. I honestly think a lot of Steelers fans would rather just suffer for a year in hopes of a better future instead of kicking the can over and over.
I will say, while beating the Packers in a super bowl would be the funniest timeline, the second funniest timeline would be the Packers doing it to the Steelers again, and the third (and most realistic) funniest timeline is that Rodgers/McCarthy combine for a real stinker of a year and Pittsburgh suffers their first losing season in over a decade because of these goobers. Option 3 is what I’m hoping for.
