One of the best parts of the NFL schedule release is looking at all the juicy storylines. Who’s in a new place and looking to make an impact? Who’s looking to get back at a team for giving up on them? Well, if Aaron Rodgers signs with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s got two revenge games on the schedule with his two former teams on their schedule. And it all starts in Week 1 when the Steelers fly to New York to take on the Jets.
It’s not so much that the Jets cut Aaron Rodgers this offseason. That didn’t catch anyone by surprise, not even Rodgers. It’s the matter in which they told him they were moving on. Rodgers detailed his meeting with new Jets head coach Aaron Glenn on The Pat McAfee Show in April. And he certainly felt disrespected by the Jets and Glenn for asking him to fly across the country for a sit-down meeting and being told they’re going in a different direction less than a minute in.
And now, if Rodgers signs with the Steelers, he’s got a chance to get back at Glenn and the Jets. That’s why former NFL WR James Jones loves this matchup as a revenge game.
“This time, I’m flying out there, and I’m on a charter plane, and I’m with the Steelers, and we’re starting with y’all Opening Day in New York,” Jones said Thursday on FS1’s The Facility. “And I’m finna ruin your day. Aaron Rodgers has a chance to go back to New York, where my man Aaron Glenn just said, ‘C’mon, let’s meet, dawg. Let’s have a little conversation. We’re going in another direction.’ And you’ve got a chance to come out and spoil Opening Day and really ball out.”
One might call this being petty. I’d say it’s pretty understandable to be frustrated with someone for making you fly cross country just to be told you’re done within a minute of sitting down. That’s the ultimate example of a meeting that could have been an email (or phone call, as Rodgers put it). So yeah, being a bit fired up for an opportunity to show them up is understandable.
And we also know that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a taste for being petty in the locker room. It turns out he gives out “petty game balls” to players when they beat their former team. That happened when the Steelers beat the Denver Broncos in 2024. QB Russell Wilson and P Corliss Waitman received game balls after the Steelers’ 13-6 win, and Wilson didn’t even play. Cam Heyward made sure to note that this wasn’t a special thing for Wilson, saying, “We’ve given out game balls like that before. Mike T. makes sure we deliver those game balls.” Perhaps Rodgers and Tomlin are a petty marriage made in petty heaven.
Obviously, this isn’t a revenge game for Rodgers until the Steelers sign him. But it will be a revenge game regardless for Jets QB Justin Fields. And he’ll have plenty of reason to want to prove himself right and the Steelers wrong. But if Aaron Rodgers suits up for the Steelers, there will be plenty of petty fireworks Week 1.
