{"id":801163,"date":"2026-08-03T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/801163\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:10:10","slug":"how-aaron-rodgers-opened-himself-up-for-this-season-of-reconciliation-and-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/801163\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aaron Rodgers opened himself up for this season of reconciliation and reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of NFL training camp<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

LATROBE, Pa. \u2014 As Mike McCarthy stared at his television screen last January, watching what he believed would likely be the final few minutes of Aaron Rodgers\u2019 storied career, the veteran coach was unnerved by the brutality of the plotline.<\/p>\n

And when Rodgers threw the pick six that sealed the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 dispiriting first-round playoff defeat<\/a> to the Houston Texans at Acrisure Stadium, McCarthy\u2019s stomach dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was it,\u201d McCarthy recalled. \u201cTo be honest, I was watching, and I was sick \u2014 for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers was sick, too. Though few people beyond the Steelers\u2019 sideline knew it, the 42-year-old quarterback had been felled by flu-like symptoms<\/a> in the hours leading up to the game, making the experience even more miserable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling good, and I actually came over to the team hotel, and they sent me home \u2014 probably because I was pale and looked like s\u2014,\u201d Rodgers revealed in an interview with The Athletic following Saturday\u2019s training camp practice at St. Vincent College.<\/p>\n

Rodgers, whose symptoms included fever and vomiting, made a point during the conversation of insisting that he\u2019d recovered by kickoff, crediting the Texans\u2019 ferocious defense for an epic effort.<\/p>\n

Yes, he sucked it up. Clearly, however, the timing sucked. For all the legendary things the four-time MVP has done in his two-plus-decade career, the first 14 seasons of which were spent playing for McCarthy in Green Bay, the illness contributed to a nightmarish playoff exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely downplaying it,\u201d said former Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who now serves in a similar role at Ohio State. \u201cThere was never a question he was gonna play, and he\u2019s never one to complain, but he looked terrible (before the game).\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 teammates and coaches had tried to stay positive, expressing hope that he could mimic Michael Jordan\u2019s iconic \u201cFlu Game.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Though that obviously didn\u2019t happen, many of them can at least take heart that the future first-ballot Hall of Famer will have a chance to craft a more palatable ending.<\/p>\n

DK Metcalf opens up about the Steelers’ team bonding trip<\/p>\n

Mike DeFabo<\/p>\n

That group now includes McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native whose hiring by the Steelers \u2014 to replace Mike Tomlin, who resigned<\/a> the day after the defeat to the Texans, ending a 19-year run as the team\u2019s head coach \u2014 helped convince Rodgers to put off retirement for a final season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d gone into the offseason thinking it was probably going to be it, and I\u2019d be totally fine with it \u2014 I feel good about my career,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cBut once he got hired, then my mindset changed a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

To those familiar with the tension that sometimes existed between the coach and quarterback during their shared time with the Packers \u2014 Rodgers and I once agreed<\/a> that the farcical \u201ctwo visionaries\u201d argument scene<\/a> in \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap\u201d was an apt analogy \u2014 the mutual excitement behind this reunion is surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsence makes the heart grow much fonder, in this case,\u201d Rodgers conceded.<\/p>\n

After McCarthy was abruptly fired during the 2018 season, he and Rodgers did not have a one-on-one conversation before the coach left the building. They stayed relatively distant for four years until McCarthy, as the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 coach, returned to Lambeau Field for a mid-November game against the Packers.<\/p>\n

That morning, long before the game, McCarthy visited the stadium to say hello to many of his former coworkers. Rodgers showed up early, too. The two men ended up alone in the office of longtime team seamstress Marge Switzer and had a long, productive, air-clearing session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met for like an hour and a half and just really talked about everything,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cSo that really was huge for our relationship, and we (stayed in) touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 appreciation for McCarthy, and all things Packers, grew immeasurably after his two-year run with the New York Jets, whose organizational dysfunction<\/a> unnerved the quarterback. Seeking a better experience, he signed with the Steelers before the 2025 campaign, swayed by the connection he\u2019d developed<\/a> with Tomlin.<\/p>\n

When Tomlin told his players he was leaving<\/a> the morning after the Texans game, conventional wisdom was that Rodgers\u2019 stay in Steeltown would end.<\/p>\n

However, he was clearly in a nostalgic mood. Following the defeat to the Texans, Rodgers had gone out of his way to stick up for another of his former Packers coaches, Matt LaFleur, leaving the embattled Green Bay boss \u201cspeechless.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Two days later, in an exit meeting with Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan, Rodgers brought up McCarthy, who spent the 2025 season out of football after his five-year stint with the Cowboys ended in a mutual parting of the ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of his conversation with Khan, Rodgers recalled, \u201cI just left him with one thing that I thought was kind of a throwaway. I said, \u2018I don\u2019t think it would hurt anything to just interview Mike McCarthy. I think you need to get the perspective of an older coach. Everybody hires these young (upstarts), mostly from the Shanahan\/McVay tree, and obviously they\u2019ve done some nice things. But just (consider) the other side of an older coach who\u2019s experienced.’\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy, 62, had also been confronting the possibility of retirement, but when he got the chance to interview with his hometown team, he was moved by the opportunity<\/a>. Rodgers, who had feared it might just be a token interview, was pleasantly surprised when McCarthy got the job.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve had plenty of laughs since then, including one in Saturday\u2019s practice when McCarthy sent in a call \u2014 \u201cSnag Bo\u201d \u2014 that stumped Rodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorite plays going back to my rookie year \u2014 basically a \u2018sit\u2019 route and a corner route \u2014 that we always called \u2018Arrow,’\u201d Rodgers explained. \u201cI guess he calls it \u2018Snag\u2019 now. I\u2019ve had to adjust a bit and be uncomfortable with some uncomfortable words.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foundational tenets, however, remain the same. Rodgers described it as \u201cthe only offense in the league \u2014 maybe I\u2019m missing somebody running something somewhere \u2014 that still has West Coast principles in it. I\u2019ve seen it all and can run this offense really well. At my age, I beat teams with my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Steelers<\/p>\n

\n Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy have rekindled a relationship that lasted 14 years in Green Bay. (Gene J. Puskar \/ AP)<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll get no argument from Smith, the Steelers\u2019 offensive coordinator in 2025, who was blown away by Rodgers\u2019 skills \u2014 \u201cHis arm is as good as anyone his age, ever\u201d \u2014 and savvy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching him throw the football,\u201d Smith said, \u201cwas like watching Jimmy Page play the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time since Rodgers rocked and rolled in the preseason, but this summer will likely be different. McCarthy has asked him to play in Pittsburgh\u2019s first two preseason games \u2014 against the Packers and Jets, as fate would have it \u2014 and the quarterback, who last saw significant exhibition-game action eight seasons ago (he played two series in the Jets\u2019 2023 preseason finale), is prepared to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (wants me out there for) 30 or 40 plays,\u201d Rodgers said, expressing surprise. \u201cI said, \u2018Mike, if you want me to play, I\u2019ll play.\u2019 I\u2019m not saying I want to do it. But if he wants me to, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers credits much of his new-found \u201copenness\u201d to his wife, Brittani, who more than a year into their marriage has managed to remain completely out of the public eye. Privately, she helped facilitate a reconciliation between Rodgers and his parents (and other close family members) after a long estrangement.<\/p>\n

He was even open to discussing that toward the end of our interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been really staunch, going back to when there was a schism, that I feel like that stuff should be off limits,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, not everybody in the family adhered to the same thing, but there are different things, situations, experiences, and people that actually change your life. So, when I say that my wife has completely changed my life, for the better, there\u2019s no comparison to any time I\u2019ve ever said those words before.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the big impetus behind that (reconciliation). Not that she was pushing it, but just the way that she loves me and supports me, it\u2019s allowed me to open up to that possibility. And it\u2019s been a couple-year process of communication and spending time together, but that is a real blessing in my life to have those relationships back and to close that circle that was cut for so many years. With her by my side, we reopened that door, and it\u2019s been really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not as dramatic, his reunion with McCarthy has also been steeped in emotion, and neither man takes it lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be able to take this final lap with him, it\u2019s awesome,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cYou always want to do a great job, but now to do it with him in his last chapter, it\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Rodgers\u2019 first year in Pittsburgh ended in an especially sickening manner, it came after a late-season run that featured perhaps his best stretch of football since his fourth MVP season in 2021. The chance to build on that \u2014 with a familiar collaborator sending in play calls \u2014 compelled him to get back in the ring and do some slinging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun thing, for me, is that this is a real full-circle moment for me and Mike \u2014 the closing of my career and the end of his career being back home in Pittsburgh,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cThe surreal aspect of it has kind of drifted a little bit, but it\u2019s still really special to hear that voice in my head that I\u2019ve heard for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of NFL training camp.\u00a0\u00a0 LATROBE, Pa. \u2014 As Mike McCarthy stared at his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1804,349,1321,99],"class_list":["post-801163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}