It turns out even an ever-fickle curmudgeon like Aaron Rodgers has his reasons to smile.
With a little luck—and perhaps a divine blessing from the gods—the Steelers beat the Ravens on Sunday night to take the AFC North title and clinch a playoff spot this winter. Pittsburgh’s 26-24 win came down to a missed game-ending field goal by Ravens kicker Tyler Loop that sailed wide right and sent the Steelers to the postseason for the third straight year.
Rodgers was among the Steelers players on the sidelines who nervously watched Loop miss his kick as time expired, leading the longtime vet to triumphantly raise his hands in the air knowing that he was going to play meaningful football again.
After the game, Rodgers linked up with coach Mike Tomlin on the field and the two shared a sweet emotional moment:
“Thank you for bringing me here,” Rodgers told Tomlin.
“You kidding me? Thank you for coming,” Tomlin replied.
.@AaronRodgers12 was feeling nothing but gratitude after winning the AFC North 💛 @steelers @insidetheNFL Week 18 Mic’d Up on X pic.twitter.com/JOlBzB3m2j
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2026
Few will easily forget the frenzied offseason of Aaron Rodgers’s high-profile recruitment, when the ex-Jets quarterback was weighing all his options for what could be his final home in the NFL. One reflective stroll on the beach and a few sneaky visits to Pittsburgh later, Rodgers picked the Steelers and signed a one-year deal ahead of the 2025 campaign. The rest is history in the making, with the Steelers set to face off against the Texans in the wild-card round of playoffs on Monday.
Rodgers hasn’t played playoff football since the 2021 season when he was still on the Packers. The 42-year-old won his lone Super Bowl with Green Bay in 2010 and has gone 11-10 in the postseason in his career. Now in the AFC, Rodgers and his gritty Steelers squad will enter the stacked playoff field as underdogs but will be in prime form having won four of their last five games to close out the regular season.
“We’re playing with house money. I don’t think anybody wanted us to be here,” Steelers DT Cam Heyward said after Week 18’s thrilling victory.
It goes without saying that the Steelers will need to the best out of Rodgers to stay alive in the postseason, though his teammates don’t seem too worried about the veteran rising to the occasion.
“This is my fifth year playing with him, and there’s never (been) a time where I feel like we’re going to lose it,” Steelers wideout Marquez Valdes-Scantling said of Rodgers. “I’ve been in a lot of game-winning drives with him, lot of big plays with him. That’s why he’s the best to ever do it.”
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