PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers knew what they were getting when they signed future Pro Football Hall Of Famer Aaron Rodgers to be their starting quarterback for the 2025 NFL season.
Rodgers has been an elite quarterback for most of his career, and has earned four Most Valuable Player awards across his illustrious career. Yet, at this point, he is likely known more for his off-field antics.
With TV appearances and interesting quotes, Rodgers has been able to stay in the conversation surrounding the NFL pretty consistently, and this week was no different.
Rodgers is a participant in this week's American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament that takes place each season. With celebrity attention comes autographs, which leads to Rodgers most recent interesting appearance.
In recent days, older people have begun to collect autographs for the sole purpose of dealing them on the secondary market for a profit. It is not entirely a new concept, but has certainly gained notoriety when they have jumped in front of children to land these autographs.
Rodgers got into a back and forth with a fan at the tournament, who was looking to get a ticket stub from Rodgers' rookie season signed. Rodgers was not having it, going as far as to call the fan an "autograph hound" and quizzed him in order for the fan to land the autograph.
When the fan was unable to correctly name the score of the game on the stub, Rodgers denied the request.
"You can look it up, though, and I would believe you, then I would sign your thing, but since I don’t believe you, I’m not going to sign it," Rodgers said. “You’re an autograph hound. You can’t fool me. Can’t fool me.”
Whether Rodgers was in the right to deny the request will remain in the court of public opinion, but the culture which has enabled people such as the fan who approached Rodgers to do what they have done continues to permeate the world of sports and celebrity in general.
