Aaron Rodgers begins his final season this Sunday at home against the Atlanta Falcons. Under most normal retiring-future-Hall-of-Famer scenarios, this would be a chance for Rodgers to go on a nationwide farewell tour. But nothing about Rodgers has been normal to this point, so why would his Last Dance season be any different?
First off, the NFL doesn’t really do farewell tours, in part because football doesn’t much like to reckon with the mortality of a career. Most NFL careers don’t end with a John Elway-style triumphant walkoff; most end with an offseason “Thank you, fans” Instagram post — because most careers end far earlier than the player wants.
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Rodgers, who will turn 43 this season, sure seems like he’s going out on his own terms — those terms, of course, being subject to change at any time.
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Rodgers himself is perhaps the finest example in sports of the question of separating the art from the artist. You may love him, you may loathe him, you may want to hear him chirp, you may wish he’d just shut up, but you can’t deny the man is one of the best to ever throw.
Rodgers’ numbers on the field are unimpeachable: four-time MVP, Super Bowl champion, top-five all-time ranking in just about every major passing category. He ranks fifth all-time in passing yards, behind Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and (of course) Brett Favre, and that’s likely where he’ll stay for years to come (pending the final numbers of Matthew Stafford, who’s currently less than 1,800 yards behind him). He’s at fourth all-time on the passing touchdowns list with 527, and would jump Manning with his 13th this season.
He’s also defied time in a way only one other quarterback before him has. Manning retired after his age-39 season. John Elway, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Steve Young all walked away after their age-38 one. By his final, age-41 year, Brees was held together with duct tape and hope. (Brady, as usual, throws off the whole scale. He played at an elite level all the way through his age-45 season.)
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The thing with Rodgers, though, is that it’s never about just the numbers on the field. Rodgers has opinions, man, and he loves sharing them, often on The Pat McAfee show. There, he can run wild, stomping all over ESPN or whichever political figure has raised his ire on that particular day. He might go off on a diatribe about, in his words, the “absolute coward” Anthony Fauci, or the “major scandal” of ESPN not covering the Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel story.
Rodgers, of course, has every right to share whatever poke-the-bear thoughts come into his mind; we can’t call for athletes to be more than cardboard stand-ups and then gripe when they don’t toe a party line.
Still, you wonder how much he believes what he’s saying, and how much is just a goof to get the predictable rise out of the easily outraged. (Personally, I trust Rodgers’ perspectives on vaccine policy about as much as I trust an immunologist breaking down the Ravens’ defensive schemes; your mileage may vary.)
You may also wonder why Rodgers continues to play the troll, given that by any reasonable estimation he’s won at life. He’s a Hall of Fame-level NFL quarterback, the closest thing America has to an alpha dog. As always in America, though, winning is one hell of a disinfectant.
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If they’re going to win in 2026, Rodgers and the Steelers have a climb ahead of them. Our Frank Schwab ranked Pittsburgh 20th of 32 teams in his offseason analysis, largely because the Steelers continue to play variations of the same theme: play just well enough to get into the postseason, then vomit on themselves once there. Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016 postseason, and is the only team to lose five straight playoff games, and counting, by double digits.
Can Rodgers, who is now at best a middle-of-the-pack QB, and new head coach Mike McCarthy, a lateral move from Mike Tomlin, change that narrative? Don’t count on it; our Ben Fawkes suggests taking the under on Pittsburgh’s win total of 8.5. But if things do go south, and Rodgers starts talking? Brother, whatever the number of people he’ll throw under the bus, take the over.
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One more season of Aaron Rodgers left, one more season of throwing it deep, one more season of smug press conferences, one more season where he’ll somehow manage to do something — positive or negative — no quarterback has ever done before. This ought to be a hell of a ride, no matter how it all ends.
