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PITTSBURGH — The tradition started years ago out of self-preservation, maybe even self-defense, when the bad blood of the AFC North reached its boiling point.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens was always one of mutual respect. The games against the Pacman Jones- and Vontaze Burfict-led Cincinnati Bengals? All bets were off. Who knew what would be hurled from the stands — charged insults, adult beverages, something else?
Coach Mike Tomlin and defensive captain Cameron Heyward decided then, about a decade ago, that they had better walk off the field together. Game after game. Year after year. Slowly, it morphed into something else. What was at first a practical decision became a sentimental moment as the NFL’s longest-tenured coach and the Steelers’ longest-tenured player celebrated their most thrilling wins together, or supported each other after the most gut-wrenching losses. The tradition remained unchanged, until last September.
That brings us to Week 1 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. In his first game as a Steeler, Aaron Rodgers overcame a nine-point fourth quarter deficit, driving 39 yards to set up the game-winning field goal. As Rodgers wrapped up his on-field interview with CBS, he began walking off the field to find Tomlin and Heyward waiting for him. The two-man ritual had a third member.
“Me and Mike T had talked about it, and he was like, ‘Let’s bring this old man along with us,’” Heyward remembers. “We wanted to give him an experience of what it’s like to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, and welcome him into that and show him that we’re with you along this ride, this journey. You don’t have to walk alone.”
The three men shook hands and exchanged smiles. Tomlin pointed toward the Terrible Towel twirlers and tipped his cap. Rodgers, who was booed relentlessly by the New York fans who once saw him as their savior, put his hand to his ear to troll those who were trying to taunt him.
Over the last several years, the chorus of criticism surrounding Tomlin and Rodgers has extended well beyond the confines of MetLife Stadium.
For Rodgers, it is often about what happens off the field. His outspoken political views made him a lightning rod in a charged climate. Honest criticisms of teammates in New York — like when he said receiver Mike Williams needed to run along the “red line” following a game-sealing interception — caused some to question his leadership style. When Rodgers’ indecision about extending his career lingered this offseason, former Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw said Rodgers should stay in California, “chew on bark and whisper to the gods.”
For Tomlin, it’s more so about on-field results. Did you know he’s never endured a losing season? A statement that was once seen as a compliment has now become something of a tongue-in-cheek jab, at least in some parts of Pittsburgh. Stuck in football purgatory — good enough to finish above .500 but never great enough to legitimately contend — the Steelers have not won a playoff game since the 2016 season, complicating the coach’s legacy and leaving the fan base hungry for more.
“It’s not about the organization or myself. It’s about this collective, and quite frankly, most of these men don’t care about (the playoff drought),” Tomlin said this week. “Most of them are new to us, and so that’s where my focus is. I’m certainly not going to unpack my bags on the collective’s bed, if you will.”
When the two men who stood on opposite sides of Super Bowl XLV came together this offseason, Rodgers said he didn’t necessarily “need” football anymore, nor was he trying to prove anything to anyone else. However, this season has shown that they did need each other — to rewrite narratives, to give Rodgers a more fitting final chapter after the two-year disaster in New York and to, potentially, help Tomlin fill the one recent hole that’s been poked in his résumé.
The rented white Chevy Malibu rolled through Pittsburgh’s south side neighborhood along the banks of the Monongahela River and into a back gate behind the Steelers facility. The driver, wearing dark aviator sunglasses and a plain black hat, hopped out.
Rodgers’ covert visit in April was just one part of a long, drawn out courtship that included several false alarms over the course of months of indecision. At the time, several members of Rodgers’ inner circle were experiencing health problems that kept the four-time MVP from fully committing to the day-to-day demands of NFL life. While other coaches would have grown tired of the process and gone in another direction, Tomlin may have been the coach best-positioned for patience. He’s a coach who cares about his players as people above all else, to the point that he knows small details like their high school mascot and hometown area code.
During those months, Tomlin remembered the important people in Rodgers’ life by name, asked him questions that were just detailed enough without prying, and allowed Rodgers to prioritize his personal life. Whether they realized it at the time or not, these were pivotal moments in both of their football lives.
The head coach-quarterback relationship is a critical and unique bond on any football team. When teams thrive, those two individuals stand as pillars of leadership, stabilizing the foundation upon which success is built. When they’re not connected, seasons and franchises crumble. Even before Rodgers gave his pledge, he and Tomlin were beginning to build their bridge.
“I think we have to be connected,” Tomlin said this week when asked about the importance of the QB-head coach relationship. “There is a loneliness with leadership, a responsibility with leadership. So, I just learned over the years to embrace that component of it, that we’ve got to spend time together, we’ve got to have an understanding.
“Certainly, that’s been a fun process with Aaron. It’s been really fun because he has an appetite for it. He loves the process as much as he loves competing. He’s got an awesome relationship with football.”
In many ways, Rodgers and Tomlin should be able to relate to one another. Both have shared oversized expectations created by fan bases with insatiable appetites for trophies. Rodgers played in Titletown. Tomlin coaches in the City of Champions. Rodgers inherited the near-impossible task of following Brett Favre. Tomlin leads a franchise where any era is compared to Chuck Noll’s four-Super Bowl dynasty. Together this season, they’ve reached significant milestones set by their predecessors: Rodgers surpassed Favre for all-time touchdown passes, while Tomlin tied Noll with 193 regular-season wins.
Through it, Tomlin had his QB’s back — and vice versa. In Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers, Rodgers played his worst game as a Steeler and, at least statistically, one of the worst of his entire career, throwing two interceptions and taking a sack for a safety. Midway through his postgame news conference, Tomlin fielded a rather innocuous and open-ended question.
How would you assess Aaron’s performance tonight?
“How would you?” Tomlin quipped back. “Next.”
The terse deflection did its job, preventing additional follow-up questions about Rodgers’ dud. A few weeks later, Rodgers returned the favor. In Week 13 at Acrisure Stadium, fans chanted to “Fire Tomlin” as the Buffalo Bills blew out the Steelers. The next week, Rodgers responded with his best game of the season to that point in a pivotal win over the Baltimore Ravens, throwing for what was at the time a season-high 284 yards and two touchdowns and improving the Steelers’ record to 7-6. Additionally, on a broken play he raced into the end zone for his first rushing touchdown since 2022.
As much as Rodgers’ on-field play got the Steelers back on the path to the playoffs, the more significant response may have come during the postgame news conference in Baltimore. Asked what the win meant after a tumultuous week, Rodgers grinned.
“It means maybe you guys will shut the hell up for a week,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers reiterated the same sentiment this week.
“At 6-6 there were a lot of people thinking we were going to be kind of stumbling to the finish, and then who knows what was going to happen?” Rodgers said. “A lot of you probably in this group (of media), either publicly or privately, were talking about Mike T getting axed. So it feels good to shut all those comments down.”
That victory began a stretch of four wins in five games to lift the Steelers to the playoffs. In the days leading up to Monday night’s playoff game against the Houston Texans, Rodgers used his media availability to again publicly stump for Tomlin.
“There’s always going to be something,” the quarterback said. “You know, when I was a young player, they said I couldn’t be considered elite until I won a playoff game. Then after that, it was till you win a Super Bowl … and, ‘Oh, you haven’t won MVP yet.’
“For Mike T, he’s had, what, 19 straight non-losing season? So they’ve got to find something to try and get after him. Mike T is probably like me, though, didn’t give a whole lot of s— about any of those those comments. But it is nice (to quiet outside noise), because we all love him and want to play for him and want to win for him.”
Rodgers’ personality, political views and leadership style aren’t for everyone. But it’s resonated with a young Steelers offense. Shortly after Rodgers signed, he invited his teammates to his house in Malibu, where they hung out at the beach, hit the gym and went to dinners together.
“I think he kind of was getting a bad rap from, you know, different things in the media or whatnot,” receiver Scotty Miller said. “It just showed us who he is and who he wanted to be as a leader and a teammate.”
A self-described perfectionist, Rodgers holds himself to a high standard; he expects the same from his teammates. In virtually every game this year, the camera has caught Rodgers barking at teammates after missed connections. Perhaps the best example was when Rodgers broke his wrist — before he even went to the sideline for medical attention, he ran to the goal line and got in receiver Roman Wilson’s face to tell him, loudly, what he did wrong.
Rodgers also has been given the freedom to run a meeting every Thursday. He stands in front of the offense, as rookie QB Will Howard mans the computer.
“Just really thankful,” Rodgers said. “That’s what I told Mr. Rooney and Andy (Weidl) and Omar (Khan). Just to be able to get brought in and be a part of this team, just the way I bonded with the guys and the way they have put their arms around me and allowed me to be myself and listen to me and let me lead and inspire me the way they have, it’s a good group of guys.”
Part of the reason it’s worked is that Tomlin has given Rodgers the latitude to lead in his own way.
“I just think if you get the best out of someone, particularly someone that’s in a leadership position, they got to do it in a natural way, in their voice,” Tomlin said. “You’re cutting their leadership legs out from under them when you’re asking them to be somebody (they’re) not, or to not do things in a real, natural and organic sort of way. And so I think it’s negligent to ask him to be anything other than himself.”
Inside the Steelers’ huddle, with 55 seconds remaining and the Ravens leading by four, Rodgers turned to receiver Calvin Austin III and asked, “What (route) do you want on the backside?”
Austin couldn’t come up with a firm answer.
“Somebody to my right, I don’t know if it was (Mason) McCormick or Pat (Freiermuth) said just ‘Go cook ‘em,’” Rodgers remembers. “I said, ‘All right, Cal, you run a hitch-and-go.’”
The shifty Austin raced upfield. His stutter-step froze Ravens cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, who slipped and fell. Rodgers delivered a strike for the go-ahead touchdown.
Moments later, Rodgers watched Ravens kicker Tyler Loop line up the possible game-winning field goal. As the kick sailed wide right, a wave of mixed emotions flooded over him. Chaos. Disbelief. Gratitude.
As the celebration spilled onto the field, Tomlin extended an arm to Rodgers. Soon, they were wrapped in an embrace.
“Appreciate you, man,” Tomlin said.
“Love you, man,” Rodgers said. “Thanks for bringing me here.”
“Are you kidding me?” Tomlin said. “Thanks for coming.”
With that Tomlin, Rodgers and Heyward walked off the field, together.
