Aaron Rodgers had a lot of expectations heading into his first year with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025. And from the way he spoke about the city and team during the season, as well as with Pat McAfee during his first public appearance since the Steelers’ season ended, Pittsburgh certainly seemed to live up to those expectations.
What he didn’t seem to love was the Acrisure Stadium field itself. Speaking Wednesday, Rodgers took a subtle swipe at the Steelers’ home playing surface when asked why he enjoyed his 2025 season with the Steelers.
“Just seeing the response from the fans, how much they loved the Black and Gold. And then, Acrisure, other than the field surface itself, is a great place to play. I mean, I’m not saying anything out of my ass,” Rodgers said on The Pat McAfee Show.
This isn’t the first time Rodgers has voiced his displeasure with the field. In Week 6, it was in terrible shape against the Cleveland Browns. During that game, Miles Killebrew suffered a bad knee injury, and Chris Boswell fortunately avoided one while slipping during a field goal attempt. After the Steelers’ 23-9 win, Rodgers called the field “borderline unplayable”.
He wasn’t the only one with that concern. Cam Heyward also made his frustration known, and both Steelers and Browns players complained to the NFLPA about the field conditions. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the field got an F- grade on the annual NFLPA report cards that leaked last week. Andrew Siciliano, the Browns’ radio play-by-play announcer, even mentioned that multiple players told him it was the worst surface they’d played on.
The good news is that might not be as much of a problem going forward. The Steelers are set to update the field before the 2026 season. It’s unclear exactly how that will improve the conditions, but Gerry Dulac noted it should be more “hardy”. Perhaps that will help solve problems created by multiple teams playing on the same field throughout the football season.
The rest of Rodgers’ interview was relatively predictable. He had a lot of love for Pittsburgh and praised plenty of his 2025 teammates. At times he spoke about working out in an effort to stay in shape. Other times, he spoke about things in the past tense and remained noncommittal about the 2026 season. Whatever happens, Rodgers did have one more jab for the field at Acrisure Stadium.
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