Latest / The Sports Hangover Daily / Rodgers Confirms Final Season With McCarthy in Pittsburgh | May 21, 2026
Transcript
- Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Aaron Rodgers says this is it — his final season, and he's doing it with McCarthy in Pittsburgh. Rashee Rice is sitting in a Dallas County jail cell right now. OKC evens the series with San Antonio after a wild night of injuries. And Joe Burrow says these Bengals are the most talented roster he's ever had. Let's get into it. Aaron Rodgers stood at the podium at Steelers OTAs yesterday and said the words we've been waiting for. "Yes, this is it." Per ESPN's Brooke Pryor, Rodgers confirmed that twenty twenty-six will be his final NFL season. He said he was ready to walk away after Mike Tomlin stepped down, but when Pittsburgh hired Mike McCarthy, something clicked. And honestly? Yeah, that tracks. Rodgers and McCarthy ran Green Bay together for years. That's a comfort zone. That's a guy who knows how to manage the ego, manage the arm, manage the whole circus. He's back on a one-year deal worth up to twenty-five million with incentives. Base salary jumps from around thirteen and a half million to somewhere in the twenty-two, twenty-three million range. He's taking first-team reps. He's locked in. Say what you want about the drama, the offseason soap opera, the will-he-won't-he — the man showed up. What I keep coming back to, though — Rodgers is forty-two years old. He threw for over thirty-three hundred yards last season. Twenty-four touchdowns, seven picks, ten and six record. Playoff berth. That's not a retirement tour stat line — that's a starter. But this IS the retirement tour now, and Pittsburgh is betting the entire twenty twenty-six season on a quarterback who just told you he's got one foot out the door. If this works, McCarthy looks like a genius for luring him back. If it doesn't, the Steelers just spent another year not developing whoever comes next. Drew Allar is sitting right there. Max Iheanachor just got drafted in the first round to protect somebody's blind side — and right now, that somebody is a forty-two-year-old on a farewell lap. I respect the move. I just hope Pittsburgh has a plan for twenty twenty-seven, because Rodgers sure doesn't. Rashee Rice is in jail. Thirty days in the Dallas County jail for violating his probation after testing positive for THC. This stems from the twenty twenty-four highway crash where Rice was racing his Lamborghini against an SMU receiver at a hundred and nineteen miles per hour. Multiple people were hurt. He was booked Tuesday afternoon, and he's not getting out until June sixteenth. That overlaps with Chiefs voluntary OTAs and mandatory minicamp. And on top of that, he had knee clean-up surgery last week — two months on the shelf from that alone. At some point, this stops being bad luck and starts being a pattern. The NFL hasn't commented yet beyond "aware of the report," but you know discipline is coming. Rice has a hundred and fifty-six career catches and a Super Bowl ring, and right now he's throwing it all away. NFL owners wrapped up meetings in Orlando on Tuesday. They approved bumping the maximum international games to ten beyond this season. That's the CBA ceiling. This year already has a record nine international games. Nashville locked down Super Bowl sixty-four in twenty thirty at the new Nissan Stadium. And flag football got a formal recommendation to become an NCAA championship sport, with the first championship projected for spring twenty twenty-eight. OTA notebook — Kirk Cousins is QB one in Las Vegas right now. He took first-team reps ahead of Aidan O'Connell and the first overall pick Fernando Mendoza, who they're still easing in. Coach Klint Kubiak hasn't named a starter, but the pecking order is pretty clear. Also in Vegas, Kubiak called Brock Bowers "a football robot, in a good way." The kid's twenty-three and already a two-time Pro Bowler. That's scary. Joe Burrow dropped a quote at Bengals OTAs that's gonna get people fired up. He said this is "the most talented roster that we've had since I've been here." That includes the twenty twenty-one team that went to the Super Bowl. That includes the twenty twenty-two team that made the AFC title game. Burrow doesn't say stuff like that casually. Cincinnati is feeling themselves right now. Over in the Western Conference Finals, OKC bounced back to beat San Antonio one twenty-two to one thirteen. Series is tied at one apiece. SGA went for thirty and nine assists on fifty percent shooting. Caruso added seventeen off the bench. The Thunder forced twenty-one turnovers and had fifty-seven bench points to San Antonio's twenty-five. Wemby was solid — twenty-one, seventeen, six assists, four blocks — but Stephon Castle had nine turnovers. Twenty turnovers over two games for Castle. That's the most by any player in a two-game playoff span since they started tracking turnovers in nineteen seventy-seven. The bad news — Jalen Williams left with hamstring tightness. Same hamstring that's already cost him six playoff games. And Dylan Harper went down with a leg injury in the third quarter. He was starting for the injured De'Aaron Fox. Game three is Friday in San Antonio. Here's my Hangover Take. Keon Coleman said yesterday that twenty twenty-six is a "make or break" season for him, and I respect the self-awareness. But here's what bugs me — he's right, and that should terrify Buffalo. They drafted this guy to be a number one receiver, and two years in, he hasn't gotten there. The Bills just watched the Seahawks win a Super Bowl with a deep, balanced roster. Josh Allen isn't getting younger. If Coleman doesn't take a leap this year, Buffalo has to start asking whether they missed on the pick — and in a division where the Jets just added Rodgers' retirement energy and Miami is always one Tua health streak away from being dangerous, you can't afford a question mark at your top receiver spot. Make or break is right. The clock is ticking in Buffalo. That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.