On February 6th, 2011, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger shared the stage at Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas, and while it would be the Green Bay Packers who would ultimately prevail, the contest proved to be the last time in which either man made it to the championship game. Nevertheless, here we are some 14 odd years later, and Rodgers, in a bit of an ironic twist, is now set to pass up Roethlisberger once again, except this time, he’ll be the one wearing black and gold.
Throughout the past 20 years, Rodgers has competed in 248 NFL contests, which is rather significant, because the former face of the Steelers’ franchise in Roethlisberger, participated in 249 games during his 18-year career. So long as Rodgers can avoid an incident like the one that plagued his debut as a New York Jet, he’ll officially pass up the Pittsburgh legend with a start in both Week 1 and Week 2 of the 2025 regular season.
Of course, no one has played more games with the Steelers than Roethlisberger. In fact, he’s the only player in the history of the franchise to play in more than 220 games.
Nevertheless, Rodgers will surpass Big Ben in the all-time career games played rankings in Pittsburgh at 1pm EST on September 14th at Acrisure Stadium. The occasion may not be worthy enough of a pre-game video package or a collectable bobble head, but it will add yet another undertone to Rodgers’ storied relationship with the Steelers.
Should the four-time regular season MVP manage to stay healthy and participate in each and every single one of the 17 games that are on this year’s slate, he’ll be set to retire having played in a grand total of 265 games, the 34th most of any player in NFL history. Considering that Rodgers infamously refused to rule out the possibility of playing for an additional season in 2026 during his most recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, there remains a slim chance that he could climb even higher up the all-time list.
Given the amount of injuries that he has sustained throughout the years, in addition to the fact that he famously spent the first three seasons of his career sitting on the bench behind Brett Favre, that’s a rather impressive feat for the future first-ballot Hall of Famer. Of course, the Steelers are hoping to get a bit more than just an attendance record from Rodgers.
Pittsburgh has decided that it’s willing to go all in on the 2025 season in an attempt to find its first playoff win since 2016, nearly an entire decade ago. Much like that fateful day in 2011, the playoff success of the Steelers is at the mercy of Aaron Rodgers, proving that, while history may not repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.
