The flicker of hope dies hard. Ask any Detroit Lions fan who witnessed December 3, 2015. Down 23–21 with zero seconds left, no timeouts, ball on their own 39, Aaron Rodgers drops back, scrambles right, heaves a prayer 61 yards through the Michigan twilight… “caught” by Richard Rodgers. A Hail Mary dagger straight out of legend. That’s the magic Pittsburgh craves.

That’s the flicker ignited by the black and gold signing of the future Hall of Famer. But hold the ‘Terrible Towels’, folks. The arrival comes with a financial plot twist thicker than a Steel Curtain linebacker.

Remember March? The buzz was deafening. Rodgers, freshly released by the New York Jets, was reportedly willing to play for ‘peanuts’ – specifically, $10 million – just to land with Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams. “He’s willing to go there for $10 million,” NFL insider Albert Breer confirmed, highlighting the QB’s tunnel-vision desire for LA. Fast forward to Pittsburgh. Rodgers’s freshly inked one-year deal?

A base of $13.65 million, ballooning to $19.5 million with incentives. As ProFootballTalk succinctly noted, “He said he’d play for $10 million. Aaron Rodgers is playing for at least $13.65 million, and up to $19.5 million. Which is still a very good deal for the Steelers.” Yeah, slightly north of that Rams discount. Only Russell Wilson’s bargain-bin deal in New York pays a starting non-rookie QB less.

Rodgers can technically claim he’s playing for $10 million guaranteed (true!), but that base $13.65 million becomes fully guaranteed Week 1. Barring something catastrophic, he’s getting at least that extra $3.65 million. Pittsburgh’s front office surely raised an eyebrow. That price tag? Seems it was exclusively reserved for sunny California dreams, not the hard-nosed reality of the AFC North. A $10 million bias, confirmed.

The number & the nod

This financial revelation landed just as Mike Tomlin made another major call. Forget the Lombardi whispers or depth chart shuffles – this decision was sartorial. Rodgers wouldn’t be donning the sacred #12, unofficially retired for Terry Bradshaw. Instead, he’d reclaim #8, the digit he wore in New York and at Cal.

It’s a number with its own Pittsburgh QB lineage – Tommy Maddox’s comeback tale, Kenny Pickett’s hopeful, albeit brief, tenure. Current punter Corliss Waitman, the previous #8, likely got a nice “thank you” package for relinquishing it. It’s a small gesture, but in Steeler Nation, numbers carry weight.

Tomlin, ever the master of managing men and moments, understood: handing Rodgers #12 would have been gasoline on Bradshaw’s already simmering public disapproval. #8 was the clean slate, the respectful nod to history while focusing on the future. ‘The standard is the standard,’ Tomlin often says. The standard in Pittsburgh demands respect for the past, even while chasing the next championship.

Rodgers, ever the intriguing character, fits this blue-collar ethos in his own unique way. This is the guy who recorded his own answering machine stats at Butte College (“6 ft tall, laser-rocket arm, 12 TDs”), a precursor to the ‘championship belt’ celebration that even made WWE’s Triple H take notice. He’s a Jeopardy!-winning, record-label-owning, ayahuasca-exploring enigma who also happens to hold the NFL’s top two single-season passer ratings (122.5 in 2011, 121.5 in 2020).

He’s seen more comebacks than an Elden Ring player facing ‘Malenia’ – the ‘Miracle in Motown,’ the ‘Run the Table’ prophecy fulfilled, playing on a broken leg against the Bears. His career stats – 503 TDs vs. 116 INTs (a ridiculous 4.56:1 ratio), 102.6 passer rating (best ever min. 1,500 attempts) – scream elite efficiency.

Tomlin’s culture, built on accountability and weathering adversity (‘Nothing builds a team like adversity’), needs that veteran poise. Can the 41-year-old gunslinger, rocking #8 and admittedly playing for more than his Rams fantasy price, summon one last act of gridiron poetry in Pittsburgh? The contract whispers bias, the number signals a new chapter, and the city demands its flicker of hope become a blaze. The Hail Mary maestro is here. The AFC North just got infinitely more interesting.