Rodgers back at scene of his darkest day for Pittsburgh Steelers debut

NFL 2025 season

Dates: 4 September 2025 - 8 February 2026

BBC coverage: Live text coverage every Sunday on the BBC Sport website and app (from 18:00 BST), and live radio commentary of selected games on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds, with Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers this Sunday (from 21:00 BST)

It was an evening that promised so much for Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets and their long-suffering fans.

More than half a century after their only Super Bowl win, the Jets finally had a quarterback capable of leading them back to NFL glory.

Having built a championship-calibre roster, the Jets added a superstar just two years removed from his fourth MVP award.

Now Rodgers was about to make his Jets debut and moments before kick-off at MetLife Stadium, the lights were dimmed for him to make a grand entrance.

It was the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 and the crowd roared with excitement as Rodgers charged onto the field carrying an American flag.

But the euphoria soon turned despair. Just four plays into his Jets career, Rodgers went down with what proved to be a season-ending Achilles injury.

NFL writer Melissa Jacobs told BBC's Sport Today that it was "the single most devastating moment for a franchise in NFL history".

Two years on, the 41-year-old returns to the scene of his darkest day, to make his debut for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the team that just released him.

"The hype was off the charts," says New York-based sportswriter Ian O'Connor.

He already felt that Rodgers was the "most compelling and polarising figure" in the NFL and his bid to win a championship for "a loser-ville franchise in the NFL's biggest market" inspired him to write a Rodgers biography., external

O'Connor had followed the Jets' sorry search for a successor to legendary quarterback Joe Namath, which had turned them into a laughing stock. They have failed to reach the post-season since 2011, the longest current play-off drought in the NFL.

But, after 18 years and a Super Bowl win with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was ready to swap the NFL's smallest market for the Big Apple and relished his new lifestyle.

He made numerous public appearances and Jets fans warmed to their new star after seeing how he was portrayed in the Hard Knocks series, which followed the Jets' training camp.

"I've been covering sports in New York for almost four decades and I've never seen a superstar athlete from another market embracing New York like Aaron Rodgers did," O'Connor told BBC Sport. "It was a total love-fest.

"Jets fans couldn't get enough of it. New Yorkers really embraced him and didn't care about his vaccine views or conspiracy theories.

"They didn't care about anything except his football talent and the chance to see the Jets reach the Super Bowl for the first time since Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon (1969).

"To have that ripped away four plays into the season, it was a tough night. I was in the building and I've never been more heart-sick for an athlete and a fanbase."

Without Rodgers, the Jets finished the 2023 season with a 7-10 record and although he returned last year, head coach Robert Saleh was sacked as the Jets slumped to 5-12.

O'Connor said that Rodgers planned for "two healthy seasons with the Jets". He got just one as, in February, new coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey said they wanted to go "in a different direction".

Even after Rodgers returned from injury, it seemed the Jets were never able to shake that feeling of what might have been.

There were issues throughout last season, but this year offered the Jets a chance to start afresh after going all in on Rodgers did not work out.

Rick Spielman has become the Jets' senior football advisor and helped conduct what he calls an "after-action review" on behalf on team owner Woody Johnson, the former US ambassador to the UK.

"You learn every year, you look back and reflect," he told BBC Sport. "You address those difficult decisions and Ambassador Johnson is very honed in on making sure that the New York Jets eventually win another Super Bowl."

This year the Jets' roster has seen more turnover than any other NFL team, and they come into the 2025 season with a new head coach, new general manager and new quarterback.

Justin Fields will play for his third team in three years and, coincidentally, the 26-year-old was at Pittsburgh last season so both he and Rodgers will face their previous team on Sunday.

"I know the media are saying 'they're not going to win that many games' or 'it's a rebuild'," Spielman added. "To me, it's not a rebuild. There's a lot of new faces but I think the Jets are going to surprise a lot of people this year."

An unnamed Jets player told ESPN, external that he respected the new leadership's swift decision on Rodgers because it was "like cutting off the head of the snake".

They then brought in Fields, a very different player and personality to Rodgers, and Jets coach Glenn suggested the veteran's profile was a distraction by saying that Fields is "not trying to be a celebrity quarterback".

Jets guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, who has suffered a season-ending triceps injury, told BBC Sport: "Aaron brought a little more of everything, but that's natural for a four-time MVP. I think Aaron enjoyed his time here, I enjoyed his time here, but now it's in the past."

Away from the bright lights of New York, Rodgers is trying to make friends in Pittsburgh and build chemistry with his new team-mates.

The Steelers have struggled at quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement after the 2021 season. They wanted to keep Fields, who spent most of last season as back-up, but he chose the Jets.

And although Fields says there are no hard feelings before Sunday's reunion, he admits "the storyline is crazy. I mean, that's why the NFL set us up for week one".

Rodgers has said that his Jets entrance was one of his few "special moments" in New York.

This week he played down the significance of running out of that same tunnel, but Sunday's match-up gives all parties an opportunity to find closure.