Aaron Rodgers facing his former team would make the Pittsburgh Steelers' clash with the New York Jets one of the marquee matchups of Week 1, but that's not why the NFL scheduled that game for the season's opening week.
In fact, Mike North, the league's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that contest probably would've been in prime time if the NFL knew Rodgers was coming back.
"You'll see Pittsburgh at the Jets are on CBS at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Week 1, along with seven other NFL games all at the same time," North said. "If the league knew, we probably would've scheduled that game for a national television window."
Rodgers has met with the Steelers and is expected to join them, but he's yet to announce if he'll play in 2025. The Jets moved on from the four-time MVP after he failed to meet expectations during his two seasons in New York, replacing him with former Pittsburgh passer Justin Fields.
"At worst, it's Fields against his old team. At best, it's Aaron Rodgers going up against one of his old teams," North added. "Look at what we did with Aaron Rodgers' first game the last two years. If we knew something, I think you would've seen it reflected in the schedule. That being said, still a good game."
The Jets played Monday night in Week 1 in both of their seasons with Rodgers.
Pittsburgh has a major question at quarterback if Rodgers does retire from football. The team would likely start Mason Rudolph under center if the season started today after deciding not to draft a QB until Round 6 last month. The Steelers have never had a losing season in 18 years under Tomlin.
Pittsburgh's 2025 schedule does feature multiple prime-time games, but most of them are slated for the second half of the season. Owner Art Rooney II isn't a big fan of that.
"We're not crazy about having the night games late in the season," Rooney said, according to Bob Labriola of Steelers.com.
He added: "We would prefer not to have too many night games late in the season. Obviously, I also look for the long trips and how they fall, and, unfortunately, we have a Sunday night game in Los Angeles. Not crazy about playing those night games on the West Coast."
