The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers were in the Super Bowl came all the way back in 2010, and during that game, they just happened to lose to the quarterback who will be under center for them this year: Aaron Rodgers.
During Rodgers’ third year as a starter, he led the Green Bay Packers to Super Bowl XLV where they faced off with Mike Tomlin’s Steelers. Rodgers was voted Super Bowl MVP after he threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-25 win for the Packers.
That means Rodgers will now be playing for the same head coach he beat in the Super Bowl, which is a rarity in NFL history for a starting quarterback. As a matter of fact, that exact situation has only happened one other time and it came 32 years ago.
2025 Steelers, meet the 1993 Giants
Back in 1993, the New York Giants hired Dan Reeves and his starting quarterback was Phil Simms, who beat him in Super Bowl XXI. Before taking the Giants’ job, Reeves spent 12 seasons as the head coach for the Denver Broncos, and during that span, he led them to three Super Bowls. His first Super Bowl appearance with the Broncos came at the end of the 1986 season against Simms and the Giants. Simms was voted MVP after throwing for 268 yards and three touchdowns in a 39-20 win for New York.
When Simms and Reeves were joined together in 1993, it was only for one year, but it was a successful one. Although Simms had missed 24 games due to injuries in the two years before Reeves’ arrival, he started all 16 games with his new coach in 1993 and the two men helped lead the Giants to an 11-5 record. It was quite the turnaround for a Giants team that had gone just 6-10 in 1992.
The parallels are certainly interesting: Simms was an aging quarterback coming off two injury filled seasons before making one last run with one of the top coaches in the NFL at the time. Rodgers will now be looking to do the same thing with Tomlin.
The Giants ended up winning a wild-card game in 1993, but Simms and Reeves were knocked out of the playoffs with a divisional loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
If Rodgers and Tomlin can win just one playoff together, their pairing would likely be remembered as a success. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season, going 0-6 since losing the AFC title game to the Patriots in January of 2017.
By signing with the Steelers, Rodgers will also become just the second quarterback in NFL history to start for a team that he previously beat in the Super Bowl. The only other time it happened came in 2022 when Russell Wilson got traded to the Broncos in a move that came eight years after Wilson’s Seahawks trounced the Broncos, 43-8, in Super Bowl XLVIII. Of course, Wilson’s time in Denver didn’t work out so well. He only lasted two seasons with the Broncos before getting cut.
Wilson then signed with the Steelers in 2024, lasting just one season, and now Rodgers will be looking to do what Wilson couldn’t and that’s winning a playoff game for Pittsburgh.
Steelers signing Aaron Rodgers: Why Pittsburgh is now in position to make first deep playoff run since 2016
Bryan DeArdo
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Author: John Breech
June 9, 2025 | 3:30 pm
