The Pittsburgh Steelers are gearing up for their Week 7 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals where they will be playing their second AFC North game of the season. The team will be squaring off against Joe Flacco as Joe Burrow is still out with a toe injury, and this game is a must-win for Pittsburgh who is trying to grow its sizable lead in the AFC North. It will be a tough matchup as the game takes place on Thursday Night Football on the road, which is a quick turnaround for both teams who recently played on Sunday.
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Steelers' Aaron Rodgers throws to DK Metcalf during a home win over the Cleveland Browns during the 2025 season.
Games on Thursdays have been a talking point in the NFL for years now. It calls into question how much of a priority player safety is to the league, which is something the NFL constantly preaches, yet it forces players to play on a four-day turnaround. Many players have spoken out against the concept of games being played on Thursday, but the league doesn't seem to have any plans on changing things. Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers spoke to the media on Tuesday about the highly controversial topic.
"Thursday is all about the league and making money," Rodgers said. "I understand that. It used to be just Thanksgiving Thursdays, then they added obviously the Thursday games. Amazon coming in with a nice chunk of change. We know what it's all about. But it's the same, everybody's got at least one of these. So we just suck it up, go on the road, take care of business, then we get a little break."
Rodgers makes a lot of good points. The NFL brings in a good amount of money from Thursday Night Football. In 2021, the league announced a new media rights deal that runs through 2023, where the league renewed a ton of its existing media partnerships while also adding Amazon into the fold. The deal stated that Amazon gets exclusive rights to the league's Thursday Night Football package through 2033.
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks to members of the media ahead of Super Bowl LII.
In the NFL's media rights deal, the league is said to bring in roughly $1 billion per year through 2033 from Amazon. That is certainly a good chunk of change as Rodgers pointed out. It is a large enough amount of money for the league to jeopardize player safety by making players have a quick turnaround in between games, which is something the NFL preaches consistently.
Games on Thursdays have been a thing for quite some time, so most players are used to them. However, players still speak out against the concept of playing on Thursdays all of the time. It is one of the most highly debated topics in the NFL world.
The silver lining to playing on Thursdays is the fact that each team gets a little bit of a break before their next game. This stretch of time is often referred to as a "mini-bye," as players usually get about 10 days before their next contest.
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Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers during 2025 training camp in Latrobe, PA.
Steelers' Aaron Rodgers Probably Would Have Had Some Comments About Pittsburgh's Schedule In 2024
The Steelers went through an absolute gauntlet of a schedule at the end of the 2024 season. The team played high-level teams for most of their games at the end of the year, and the scheduling was certainly questionable. The Steelers played three games over the course of 10 days near the end of the 2024 season, and those three games came against the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens, and Kansas City Chiefs. Pittsburgh went 0-3 over that stretch as it faced elite competition over a short span of time, while having minimal rest between contests.
It is hard to imagine Rodgers would have remained silent had he been on the roster during that time, as many players in Pittsburgh called out the league for the scheduling.
What do you think of Rodgers' comments? Let us know in the comments below!
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