Aaron Rodgers says his decision to play in Pittsburgh this season was 'best for my soul'

PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers doesn't need to keep doing this. He knows that.

The four-time NFL MVP's decision to return for a 21st season and to do it in Pittsburgh was not about trying to prove something to himself, the New York Jets or anyone else.

The game has given a lot to him. Stardom. Wealth. A title. Relationships that will last long after he decides to stop playing. The next seven months — if they are indeed the last seven months of a career that almost certainly will end with a gold jacket and a bust in the Hall of Fame — are about trying to pay it forward while finding peace in the process.

Standing in front of a sea of cameras more suited for the week ahead of a conference championship game rather than what Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin calls ''football-lite'' in June, the 41-year-old Rodgers made a compelling case that the coda he is trying to author in Pittsburgh is about something deeper.

''A lot of decisions that I've made over my career and life from strictly the ego, even if they turn out well, are always unfulfilling,'' Rodgers said Tuesday after the first day of Pittsburgh's mandatory minicamp. ''But the decisions made from the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was a decision that was best for my soul.''

And one the Steelers believe is best for business, one of the reasons they put no pressure on Rodgers during the spring as he dealt with off-the-field issues that he's said included having multiple people in his inner circle battle cancer.

Rodgers said those issues ''have improved a bit,'' clearing the way for him to join Tomlin and a team that has bounced from one quarterback to another since Ben Roethlisberger retired at the end of the 2021 season.

While Rodgers is hardly a long-term solution, he believes he has enough left to help a club that has gone nearly a decade without winning a playoff game. The path from the second Tuesday in June to late January and beyond is a long one, and Rodgers balked when asked if he could help Pittsburgh get over ''the hump."

He pointed out it was simply Day 1, with all the awkwardness that comes with it.

Rodgers couldn't ''stand'' the new helmet he was forced to don after the model he'd worn for the last 20 years was finally banned by the league. He didn't know many of the names of the other 88 guys who joined him on the practice fields on a day All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt skipped in hopes of landing a new contract. It took all of one step outside the locker room for him to immediately get lost.

And yet, there was a familiarity to it all. He's known Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth since Arth made a cameo appearance alongside Rodgers as a player in Green Bay in 2006. Rodgers then rattled off a list of people he's come across with Pittsburgh ties (which includes former Packers coach Mike McCarthy) and then added with a smile that he has ''a lot of Yinzers'' in my life, a colloquialism for Western Pennsylvania natives.

None of those names, however, convinced Rodgers that Pittsburgh was the right choice. That was all Tomlin.

The two stayed in contact over the last two-plus months following Rodgers' semi-undercover visit to the team facility in March, producing what Rodgers called ''some of the coolest conversations I've had in the game."

''He's a big reason I'm here,'' Rodgers said. ''I believe in him.''

The feeling is mutual. Unlike last year, when there was a quarterback competition — at least in practice if not in spirit — between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, there is not one this time.

While Rodgers, wearing a white jersey with the No. 8 on it and a towel unfurled over the front of his black shorts, mostly stood and watched while Mason Rudolph, rookie Will Howard and Skyler Thompson took the reps there is no mystery about who will work with the starters when Pittsburgh arrives for training camp at Saint Vincent College in late July.

The last few groups of quarterbacks, from Wilson and Fields to Rudolph (during his first stint) to Mitch Trubisky to Kenny Pickett, never missed a practice or an OTA. They are also not Rodgers.

''I trust that whatever issues or learning curve things that he needs to get through will be handled during the down period of the summer for sure,'' Tomlin said.

Rodgers, who has worked out with recently acquired DK Metcalf in recent months, hopes some of the Steelers' skill position players can join him in Malibu, California, sometime between when minicamp opens on Thursday and they report to Rooney Hall on July 23.

If they do, maybe they'll get a chance to meet Rodgers' wife. Rodgers was spotted wearing what looked like a wedding band in a picture the Steelers shared when he signed his contract. Rodgers confirmed Tuesday that he was married ''a couple months'' ago but declined to get into details.

The revelation, made late in his 13-minute session with reporters, hints at the many layers to Rodgers that extend far beyond the field. He's not afraid to express his views about many topics, from vaccines to politics and beyond. Yet there was none of that on Tuesday.

There was only his firm belief in why he's here, and the optimism that this perhaps final chapter of his career will be rooted in joy.

''It's hard to think of anything in my life that's positive that wasn't impacted by directly or indirectly by playing this game,'' he said. ''So (I) just want to give love back to the game, enjoy it, pass on my knowledge to my teammates, and try and find ways to help lead the team.''

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