Paradise, the town in California, lost 85 people and more than 18,000 structures when the Camp Fire tore through Butte County in 2018. It was the deadliest wildfire in California history. Five years after the fact, Lahaina on Maui Island. 102 people died in Hawaii’s worst wildfire on record. Veteran NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers knows what those towns lost and has decided to do something to help them on their football journey.

This September, Paradise High School travels to Maui to play Lahainaluna in the first-ever Unity Bowl. And part of the reason Paradise can make the trip is a $15,000 check Rodgers wrote.

This check comes from the Aaron Rodgers’ NorCal Fire Recovery Grant Program and will help cover the players’ four-night hotel stay in Maui. The school’s fundraising goal was $72,000, accounting for the travel cost for 35 players, their coaches, and other staff members. Rodgers’ generous donation covers 20% of that goal, and Paradise just needs another 20K to have everything it’ll need.

Paradise head coach Keith Sutherland has watched his program rebuild from nothing. The 2018 fire displaced the entire town. His players grew up in that aftermath. So when Rodgers’ name came attached to the travel grant for the Unity Bowl, Sutherland said the reaction in the locker room was immediate.

“They’re super pumped,” Sutherland said. “Aaron Rodgers is a massive figurehead in this community, and what he’s accomplished at every single level is pretty outrageous from someone coming from this area. So yes, they were very pumped up. It’s a tremendous, tremendous blessing.”

For Rodgers, this connection is deeply personal, too. He attended Pleasant Valley High School in Chico – a few miles away from Paradise – and was recently inducted into its Athletics Hall of Fame. In a media address back in 2018, he recalled playing football and basketball in Paradise as a kid, and even lived in Magalia at one point – which is a small town right off Paradise. And this isn’t the first time Rodgers has shown up for these schools either.

After the 2018 Camp Fire, he donated 375 brand-new helmets to Chico, Paradise, and Pleasant Valley high schools. They were the top-rated model by both the NFL and the NFLPA at the time, too. He then launched the NorCal Fire Recovery Fund, which received $1 million from his foundation. The fund has raised $1.7 million in total since then and awarded $215,266 in grants to 12 organizations last year. In July 2024, Rodgers added another $100,000 to the Thompson Fire relief fund when 28,000 people were evacuated in Butte County.

Rodgers has spent the better part of this offseason showing up for communities he grew up in – writing checks, attending Hall of Fame ceremonies. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers are less than two weeks away from OTAs, and Rodgers’ shadow still looms large in their quarterback room.

Are the Steelers moving on from Aaron Rodgers?

Pittsburgh’s offseason program is already running. Their quarterback room currently features second-year quarterback Will Howard, the new 76th overall pick, Drew Allar, and Mason Rudolph. Rudolph is the only one in that room with any kind of starting experience, but he has only functioned as a backup for years.

Pittsburgh has also placed a UFA tender on Aaron Rodgers after the 2026 NFL Draft. This would pay him roughly $15 million in 2026 – a 10% raise on last year’s $13.65 million salary. But that’s not all that tag does. If Rodgers stays unsigned past July 22, the Steelers retain exclusive negotiating rights. If he signs elsewhere before that deadline, Pittsburgh gets a 2027 compensatory pick. But he has maintained his silence this offseason as well.

This is the situation former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch described when he went on Up & Adams show with Kay Adams recently.

“Aaron has that big joker right now,” Batch said. “And the big joker is I decide to play for you, or I throw my big joker down, and I say, ‘You want to know what? I’m moving my services elsewhere, or ultimately, I decide to retire this year.’”

The Steelers can’t move until Rodgers moves. And he isn’t moving.

The Arizona Cardinals, meanwhile, keep getting mentioned as an escape route. Nathaniel Hackett, Rodgers’ offensive coordinator during his back-to-back MVP seasons with the Green Bay Packers, is now the Cardinals’ OC. Additionally, Cardinals wide receiver Kendrick Bourne has also gone public, trying to recruit Rodgers on X.

“@AaronRodgers12 Come on we waiting on you,” Bourne wrote on X.

But ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss went to a Cardinals source directly to check for the Rodgers narrative and got a simple response back: “Not at all.” Arizona’s quarterback room already has Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, third-round rookie Carson Beck, and Kedon Slovis. There are no offers for Rodgers yet, no reported talks, and no structure in place. The Hackett connection is real, but everything else seems like noise.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is doing what any franchise does when it’s been left waiting too long – making contingency plans.

NFL Journalist Ray Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan that Will Howard would lead the QB room if Rodgers doesn’t return. Former linebacker James Harrison, on the other hand, was more direct about the locker room implications.

“If Aaron comes back, or when Aaron comes back, he gone,” Harrison declared on the Deebo & Joe podcast. “Mason’s gone. Because you’re gonna keep your two young guys. And get what you’ve got going on there, develop them however it’s gonna be. [Rudolph] done had eight years to develop and still ain’t did it. That’s gonna be something that they’re gonna end up moving on from.”

Aaron Rodgers is 42, giving back to the community like he always has. He’s also staying away from the offseason like he always has. But at some point, he stops being someone deciding between two teams and starts being someone deciding whether he wants to play football at all. Either way, the Steelers still need an answer from Rodgers, and July 22 seems like the hard deadline now.