Aaron Rodgers: I Don't Think There's Any Advantage To Playing In The Preseason

Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday that the team was still deciding whether to play quarterback Aaron Rodgers against the Packers on Thursday and he's said more than once that Rodgers has expressed to him that he wants to play in the preseason.

Rodgers hasn't done that during his own media sessions and that continued to be the case when he was asked if he wants to play on Tuesday.

"It’s preseason, it’s not real football," Rodgers said. "If I do, great. If not, great."

Rodgers expanded on his thoughts about the artificiality of August football in response to another question and included his feelings about how even joint practices have become a less effective dress rehearsal for the coming season.

"Preseason's a lot different. Teams don't run anything anymore. They just really don’t. Even joint practices. The first year we were doing them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn't going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things they were working on. It was like a real day at camp. As that got on, it just stopped being like that. It just turned into fights, and nobody showed anything because somebody’s brother is on the staff and they might show him the film. I think those are a waste of a day. I think preseason football is good to see guys with the pads on, under the lights, how they react to the nerves. But it's not real regular season football.”

If those answers didn't make things clear enough, the quarterback's response to a question about whether he thinks he gains any advantage from playing in preseason games.

"I don't think so," Rodgers said.

None of those answers sound like ones that someone who wants to play in the preseason would give, but we'll find out soon enough what direction McCarthy decides to go.