{"id":42934,"date":"2025-04-22T02:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T02:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=42934"},"modified":"2025-04-22T02:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T02:07:40","slug":"steelers-cameron-heyward-delivers-one-liner-on-recent-aaron-rodgers-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=42934","title":{"rendered":"Steelers\u2019 Cameron Heyward Delivers One-Liner on Recent Aaron Rodgers Reaction.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2181620016.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2181620016.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2181620016.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2181620016.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cameron Heyward\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"511\" data-dom-ready-time=\"687\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward defended quarterback Aaron Rodgers on social media.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Members of the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0organization\u00a0may be frustrated\u00a0with the length of\u00a0Aaron Rodgers\u2019\u00a0free agency. But one of Pittsburgh\u2019s top leaders,\u00a0Cameron Heyward, defended the quarterback on social media Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Heyward took significant issue with a tweet that stated NFL fans were praising the\u00a0New York Jets\u00a0for how they parted ways with Rodgers this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>The tweet Heyward responded to came from an NFL rumors account. The tweet was in reaction to what fans have been saying online since Rodgers criticized the Jets about his departure from the organization this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers criticized\u00a0the Jets while appearing on ESPN\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Pat McAfee Show<\/em>\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow can this be praised? This ain\u2019t cool\u2026\u201d\u00a0tweeted Heyward in response.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Steelers\u2019 Cameron Heyward Defends QB Aaron Rodgers<\/h2>\n<p>As one could have guessed, Heyward received a lot of feedback for his one-liner defending Rodgers. In the first few hours after defending Rodgers, the Steelers defensive lineman only made one reply to the feedback he received.<\/p>\n<p>One social media user apparently found Heyward\u2019s defense of Rodgers more about the defensive lineman sticking up for a teammate. But the Steelers captain clarified that wasn\u2019t his intention.<\/p>\n<p>With a second tweet, Heyward made clear he disagreed with how the Jets handled parting with Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat ain\u2019t business \u2026 communicate with agent if you don\u2019t want to deal with it .. has nothin to do with being my teammate,\u201d\u00a0tweeted Heyward.<\/p>\n<p>During his interview with McAfee,\u00a0Rodgers stated\u00a0his conversation with new Jets head coach Aaron Glenn was only a few minutes long. The two sides had the brief conversation despite Rodgers flying across the country to meet with the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Rodgers has yet to officially become Heyward\u2019s teammate in Pittsburgh. But Heyward still argued his defense of the quarterback had nothing to do with his personal feelings about him.<\/p>\n<p>NFL insiders have reported multiple times this offseason the signs point to Rodgers signing with the Steelers. However, that appears very much in doubt after\u00a0what else the quarterback had to say to McAfee on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis entire time, I haven\u2019t felt like I owed anybody some sort of decision at any point,\u201d\u00a0Rodgers told McAfee. \u201cThis is my life. Things are different now. My life is different; my personal life is different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Rodgers added the Steelers haven\u2019t given him a deadline to make a final free agency decision.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Heyward Changing His Tune Around Rodgers<\/h2>\n<p>Because of what\u00a0Heyward has previously said about Rodgers this offseason, it\u2019s more than fair to question how genuine Heyward\u2019s defense was of the quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>On March 18, Heyward didn\u2019t sound pleased about Rodgers dragging his feet with his NFL free agency decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ain\u2019t doing that darkness retreat. I don\u2019t need any of that crap,\u201d\u00a0Heyward said on his podcast. \u201cEither you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s simple. That\u2019s the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heyward made those comments to a question about what his pitch would be to convince Rodgers to sign with the Steelers. Notably, the veteran defensive lineman had a very different pitch to quarterback\u00a0Russell Wilson last offseason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was out at a conference in Arizona,\u201d\u00a0Heyward told NFL personality Kay Adams in an interview last year. \u201cAnd then I came back to my room and me and Russ just talked for about two hours. We talked ball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew he was having conversations with the Steelers. The main thing I did tell him was just, this isn\u2019t the place for glitz and glamor. It\u2019s not LA. It\u2019s not Atlanta. This is the place where the gladiators come, and we\u2019re gonna compete every day.<\/p>\n<p>On March 21,\u00a0Heyward tried to walk back what he said about Rodgers on his podcast while appearing on The Rich Eisen Show. It\u2019s quite possible Heyward\u2019s defense of the quarterback on April 21 was another attempt for him to be seen publicly supporting Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the Steelers don\u2019t need Rodgers and Heyward to have a beef even before the quarterback arrives, if he agrees to join Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Heyward is smart enough to realize that. But because of his March 18 remarks on the quarterback and the Steelers remaining need behind center, some fans are likely to doubt the sincerity of anything positive Cameron Heyward says about Rodgers this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward defended quarterback Aaron Rodgers on social media. Members of the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0organization\u00a0may be frustrated\u00a0with the length of\u00a0Aaron Rodgers\u2019\u00a0free agency. But one&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Steelers\u2019 Cameron Heyward Delivers One-Liner on Recent Aaron Rodgers Reaction.. - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=42934\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steelers\u2019 Cameron Heyward Delivers One-Liner on Recent Aaron Rodgers Reaction.. - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward defended quarterback Aaron Rodgers on social media. 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