Steelers' Cameron Heyward publicly apologizes to Aaron Rodgers

Longtime Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward generated headlines when he said in March that his "pitch" to quarterback Aaron Rodgers at that time was: "Either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don't. It's that simple."

Rodgers eventually signed a team-friendly contract to join the Steelers in time to participate in their mandatory minicamp. During the latest edition of the "Not Just Football with Cam Heyward" podcast, Heyward and Rodgers addressed the controversial comment. 

"I have to apologize," Heyward said, as shared by Mike Moraitis of Sporting News. "I guess my words were taken out of context when I said, 'Do you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or not?'"

Heyward previously insisted that his original comments were "misconstrued," and he has since praised Rodgers for bringing "a lot of leadership" to the Pittsburgh locker room. More recently, Steelers backup quarterback Skylar Thompson said that he feels Rodgers "gets misinterpreted a lot because people judge a book by its cover and don’t really know him." 

While responding to Heyward during the podcast, Rodgers made it known that he "never got offended by anyone" attached to the Steelers who implied they were annoyed that the 41-year-old remained a free agent through the voluntary portion of the offseason program. In July, Steelers safety DeShon Elliott revealed he apologized to Rodgers after Elliott previously suggested via social media that the future Hall of Famer should be in a "retirement home" rather than on the Pittsburgh roster. 

"There’s a great quote in a TV show that I enjoyed called 'Ted Lasso,'" Rodgers told Heyward. "Ted talks about one of his favorite quotes: 'Be curious, not judgmental.' And I think that’s kind of how I wanted to approach this season. And anybody that said anything, I try and put myself in their shoes as much as possible. And I respect the (expletive) outta you and what you’ve accomplished in the game and your leadership from afar. It seems like you’re the type of leader that I’d wanna play with. So when you said that, I didn’t take offense to that at all."

It certainly seems Rodgers and his teammates are on the same page ahead of Labor Day. Whether or not that will still be the case after Pittsburgh opens the season with a matchup at the New York Jets, Rodgers' former team, shall be seen.