Aaron Rodgers’ final play on the field for the 2025 season was a pick-six.
His final words to the media were equally dramatic.
The Steelers quarterback stormed out of a press conference late Monday night after being asked a second question about longtime Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin following the team’s 30-6 loss to the visiting Houston Texans in a wild-card playoff game.
“I’ve answered that a number of times,” Rodgers said. “I’ve talked extensively about how I feel about Mike. And I just did in that (expletive) answer, so … thanks.”
Rodgers, 42, had hinted at retirement during the season, though he said afterward he was “not going to make any emotional decisions.”
Tomlin reportedly stepped down Tuesday after his seventh consecutive playoff loss. The head coach of the Steelers since 2007, Tomlin never has had a losing season and won the Super Bowl in his second season.
But the Steelers have been stuck in the mushy middle the past five years, finishing with nine or 10 wins each season.
Rodgers, who signed a one-year deal with the Steelers before this season after two tumultuous campaigns with the lowly New York Jets, was full of praise for Tomlin before the second question.
“This league has changed a lot in my 21 years,” Rodgers said. “You know, when you hear conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world — those are just two that I’ve played for — when I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat.”
Like Tomlin, LaFleur has faced heat following the Green Bay Packers’ early exit.
Rodgers, of course, had his best days with Green Bay, where he was a four-time MVP and captured one Super Bowl.
“The validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me, that’s an absolute joke,” Rodgers said. “For either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and as a league.”
