With Aaron Rodgers announcing Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show that he is likely to retire after the 2025 season, the sports world finds itself debating Rodgers’ legacy, as well as what a successful season with the Pittsburgh Steelers will look like.
That includes ESPN’s “Get Up,” specifically former NFL linebacker Bart Scott.
“I think he deserves an opportunity to be celebrated, to tell everybody, ‘Hey, this is my last year.’ What happened in New York, that narrative, he can’t go out that way. He just wants to come out and be who he is and representative of who he is and an organization that he’s always admired,” Scott said of Rodgers, according to video via ESPN’s YouTube page. “And I think he deserves the opportunity to go out that way. He’s one of the best to ever do it. He leaves us desiring more. I think he’s underappreciated.”
Scott went out of his way to compare Rodgers’ career to one of musical artist Lauryn Hill, stating that Rodgers had the one big hit, winning the Super Bowl, and had some MVP seasons, but he never was able to get another one and truly cement himself as one of the all-time greats, sort of like Hill did with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and then never produced another album.
There’s no denying Rodgers’ greatness though. Four NFL MVPs, more than 500 career passing touchdowns, all of the All-Pros and Pro Bowl honors have him as a first-ballot Hall of Famer when it’s his time. Despite that greatness, it might not be his true legacy when it’s all said and done due to the headlines and the controversies he’s had off the field.
That seems entirely unfair though, because Rodgers is a football player, not a politician. He can have his own opinions. They might be unpopular to many, but he’s a human being, and by all accounts from those that matter most — his teammates — he’s a great guy behind closed doors.
After a disastrous two years in New York that saw him tear his Achilles, and then go 5-12 as a starter, miring through a season that produced more explosive headlines than wins for the Jets, Rodgers is now in a stable environment in Pittsburgh playing under a head coach he respects a great deal, and in a situation he’s respected from afar.
Rodgers says he’s aiming to give back to the game that he loves so much and just wants to have fun in Pittsburgh, and realistically he should be celebrated if it is his final season in the NFL. He’s one of the all-time greats and arguably the most talented quarterback to ever play the game to this point.
If this is it, hopefully he’s celebrated and enjoyed for one final season. Hopefully that celebration continues well into the playoffs, too, so Rodgers can go out the way he wants: competing at a high level and contending for a Super Bowl.
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