On a sideline Sunday night, we saw a team that gave up everything for a veteran, Super Bowl-winning quarterback. And on the other hand, we saw a team that forced a veteran, Super Bowl-winning quarterback to give up (almost) everything simply for the right to play there. That’s the story of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 37-15 victory over the New York Jets.

The Jets at that time became Aaron Rodgers Incorporated the team traded for him and began the long process of making moves that arose, directly or indirectly, from his presence there. Rodgers changed the way the team approached the draft and free agency. He changed the way the team approached the trade deadline. He changed the way the offense played. Just like when a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer recruits a new backing band, no one wants to be the one with a cymbal thrown at their head, causing everyone to play a little tight. While Rodgers didn’t order the dismissal of his head coachthe enormous pressure of his presence there changed the way the Jets approach even the most basic human niceties. Let’s not forget that Robert Saleh was the first coach of the season to fire Woody Johnson, despite losing a game of first place at the time.

And while the Jets were never really a team with a definitive, owner-created culture or identity that spanned decades and influenced years of success, it’s safe to say that the team’s ethos is now fully wrapped up in the taste of the playoffs with Rodgers under center. somehow rationalizing how vulnerable a joke-prone place has made itself.

Russell Wilson, on the other hand, had to become the perfect Steeler the moment he signed there with the ‘pole position’ for a starting job but no guarantees. He was there when the team also traded for Justin Fields. He was there when Fields started the season 4-2. He had to sit there with his eyes black as a painted statue, unable – or perhaps wisely unwilling – to respond to what had become a chorus of jokes about his life. Leave it to Bever behavior. He was once, as far as his current team was concerned, the highest-paid player in the sport, worthy of the veteran minimum. Replaceable.

On Sunday, I was less enamored with the fact that he had scored a total of three touchdowns and thrown for 264 yards than I was with seeing him wedge his body under that offensive line multiple times and subject himself to a series of trash compactor-like positions to pick up. short distance gain. This is the same quarterback who found himself in his new situation in Denver with a private staff and an office; a quarterback who didn’t want to play rugby football anymore. And while no one can fault him for wanting fewer penalties at the end of his career, this was a quarterback who seemed completely ill-suited for one of the toughest, machismo-drenched franchises in all of sports.

To be clear, I was one of the first people to call for the Jets to acquire Rodgers and one of the Wilson’s loudest opponents in Pittsburgh. I can’t switch sides on an evening like this and claim clairvoyance at my convenience, but I can point out what I’ve overlooked: it’s far better to bend your will to a culture that already exists than to force people into a kind of existing culture that you can bend to your will.

Before Rodgers arrived, the Jets were a team of young stars. They had offensive and defensive rookies of the year in Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. They had something new about them. Now they look more like a non-playoff team during baseball’s steroid era — a list of names you recognize, but you’re not quite sure why or how they all came together on this field.

Before Wilson’s arrival in Pittsburgh, the Steelers were the Steelers. On Sunday night, the Steelers largely remained the Steelers. They hit the quarterback eight times, broke up six passes and picked off two. If we could identify one clear difference from Wilson in the lineup, it was a more calculated – and successful – aggressiveness. According to NextGenStats, Wilson attempted to more than double the percentage of throws in tight coverage than Justin Fields in Week 6, which, at least on one night, led to some game-changing chunk plays and the involvement of some hungry wide receivers.

Although it is only one match, the exit strategy for both teams couldn’t be more different. Taking Wilson out of the lineup for Fields, a quarterback who handled his demotion with class, would be nothing more than a few well-chosen words on the podium. Both Wilson and Fields understand how to succeed there. They both understand that being in Pittsburgh means there are certain expectations; a code, a playing style, that are needed. It wouldn’t cause controversy if both started a handful of games over the remainder of this season.

Retiring from the Rodgers experiment would leave behind a kind of ruin that is difficult to comprehend, since after seven weeks we still have no idea what the Jets are building or how they’re getting there.