Steelers Now
NFL vice president of broadcasting and scheduling Mike North claims that Aaron Rodgers played no factor in the dynamics of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 schedule. I guess it’s just coincidence that the Steelers play the New York Jets in Week 1 and play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football in Week 8.
North emphasized that the Steelers’ track record contributed to Pittsburgh having four primetime games.
“We don’t know anything more than anybody else,” North said on a conference call, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “The schedule was built for Coach [Mike] Tomlin and for the Steelers, and if Aaron decides to play it probably just makes many, if not all, the Steelers games a little more interesting.
“Their sustained success for over a decade here — Coach Tomlin’s never had a losing season,” North said. “The Steelers are always playoff-relevant late down the stretch, and they have a national fan base, so their body of work is what warranted the national television exposure for them, same as probably in previous years.”
North also said the league liked having Steelers-Packers in a primetime slot regardless if Rodgers signs with Pittsburgh. Both teams have huge followings, so I guess that’s plausible.
“If it fell on a Sunday afternoon for instance, it becomes a dominant story of the day. Aaron’s first game against his old team. So put it in a national window. If Aaron’s the quarterback, it’s a great story. If Aaron’s not the quarterback, it’s still Packer[s]-Steelers ‘Sunday Night Football’ in Week 8.
“We tried to play it down the middle.”
If Rodgers already signed on the dotted line with the Steelers, the Week 1 game against the Jets would’ve most likely been in primetime.
“If we knew for certain that Aaron was going to be the quarterback of the Steelers, we might’ve done something a little different in Week 1 with the Steelers game,” North said.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: NFL Exec Claims Aaron Rodgers Played No Factor in Steelers Schedule
