In last year’s Wild Card game, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense played the way Aaron Rodgers felt. Sick. Pittsburgh’s offense did little against the Houston Texans’ vaunted defense, managing just six points in another ugly postseason loss. Rodgers was miserable, completing barely half his passes with his final throw pick-sixed the other way.
Monday, Michael Silver shared that Rodgers said he was ill ahead of the game with flu-like symptoms. Pittsburgh never listed Rodgers on the injury report, leading some like reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala to wonder if the NFL will take action.
“Let’s go back to what you said about the whole flu thing,” Kinkhabwala told 93.7 The Fan’s Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “The Steelers could get in trouble for not reporting that. So I don’t think that that would be manufactured, right?”
Her comments came in response to Fillipponi’s skepticism that Rodgers was telling the truth. In Silver’s article, the then-offensive coordinator confirmed Rodgers was sick, though also joked Rodgers might have been playing up the angle.
Mike Florio reached out to the league for comment about Pittsburgh not reporting Rodgers’ illness. The league declined to offer a statement. It’s true the league can and has punished teams for omitting injury or illness information on team reports under the idea that it robs opposing teams of relevant information and can create inside information for the gambling world.
In 2023, the Atlanta Falcons were fined for not reporting RB Bijan Robinson’s illness. In fact, the Steelers were even fined in 2019 for omitting QB Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury.
However, it seems doubtful another punishment is coming Pittsburgh’s way despite Kinkhabwala’s, and to a greater degree Florio’s, belief. The league generally only fines when an injury or illness has a material impact on the game. In 2023, Robinson barely played. In 2019, Roethlisberger exited before halftime. Rodgers didn’t miss a single snap, aside from bowing out on the final drive when the game was effectively over.
Players are sick every week. Patrick Queen had terrible food poisoning ahead of Pittsburgh’s 2024 Wild Card Game against the Baltimore Ravens but was absent from the final injury report. Queen played his normal snaps, and the team wasn’t fined.
It’s fair to say teams take a risk when they don’t list players with an illness. If that player is unable to finish the game, the team could be at risk of a fine, which seems to run $75,000 for the team and $25,000 for the head coach. Of course, if Pittsburgh was punished, Mike McCarthy shouldn’t and wouldn’t receive the penalty. And there’s no history of the league punishing a team months after the fact for injury report omissions.
It’s a story and angle that is likely much ado about nothing. But if Rodgers comes down with the flu sometime during 2026, the Steelers would be safe to note it on their report.