Aaron Rodgers has already announced his retirement plan after being touted for Tom Brady role

Aaron Rodgers has made it abundantly clear that once he hangs up his cleats from the NFL, he will not be anywhere near the public eye.

So he says.

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The future Hall of Fame quarterback finally announced that he would be returning to the Pittsburgh Steelers after a prolonged decision-making process for the 2026 NFL season.

Rodgers signed a one-year deal worth $22 million, but this could rise to as high as $25 million based on achieving performance incentives, seeing his career earnings surpass $394 million.

In his first appearance since his return was announced on Wednesday, the 42-year-old revealed that “this is it” and that he would be calling time on his stellar career following the conclusion of his 22nd season in the league.

In Year 21, Rodgers completed 65.7 percent of his passes for 3,322 passing yards and 24 touchdowns to seven interceptions as he led the Steelers to the AFC North title over the Baltimore Ravens with a win over their fiercest rivals in the final game of the regular season.

But he could not lead them past the AFC Wild Card Round, with them suffering a 30-6 blowout defeat to CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans.

Life after the gridiron

As it pertains to what lies in store for him once he does officially retire from playing, Rodgers has already previously revealed that he will not be following the likes of his long-time rival Tom Brady in entering a career in the media.

Back in a March appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers said of his future, “When this is done, it’s Keyser Soze, and you won’t see me…

“I’m not doing TV. I’m not gonna be out and about.”

Following Tony Dungy’s stunning release from NBC’s Football Night in America coverage after 17 years with the TV network, Rodgers was initially named as a potential replacement.

However, it was his former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin who wound up in the role vacated by Dungy, after his decision to step down from coaching the Black and Yellow after 19 years at the helm.

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In fact, Tomlin’s departure from Pittsburgh led Rodgers to question his own future with the team, until the organization hired Mike McCarthy, with whom he won a Super Bowl with during their shared time at the Green Bay Packers.

“I thought that was probably it for me in Pittsburgh,” he said, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.

“But when the decision was made to hire Mike [McCarthy], I started opening my mind back up to coming back.”

Rodgers previously drew little interest as a broadcaster

Rodgers would be in line for a huge payday if all-time great Brady’s 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox is anything to go by.

But according to Andrew Marchand, Rodgers will have limited options as a broadcaster.

“If you look at a top-20 list — just Google the list of the top 20 quarterbacks of all-time, almost all of them have gone into TV or have had the option to go into TV,” Marchand said last year.

“Now, will there be options for Aaron Rodgers? Yeah. I think so. Podcasts, whatever. There’s a million places you can go. But in terms of a network, does any network really want to take a chance on Aaron Rodgers? I don’t think so. And that’s pretty amazing considering Super Bowl winner, all-time great. And I do not think he’ll have a lot of suitors in terms of network television. And I’m sure Aaron Rodgers would say, ‘I don’t want them anyway.'”

Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy echoed this sentiment, reporting NFL media partners weren’t exactly clamoring to add Rodgers to their ranks last year.

“Yes, he could be a great analyst. But he’s insufferable,” one source told McCarthy.

But for now at least, Rodgers wants to ride into the sunset quietly, despite all his actions up until this point suggesting the exact opposite.

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