Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy has said he regrets branding Aaron Rodgers a ‘f***ing a**hole’ in an X-rated sideline spat.
The Steelers fell to 2-2 after a 27-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night, during which cameras caught Rodgers exploding at his coach during an offensive drive.
‘What the f***? Call it!’ the 42-year-old shouted while his teammates waited in the huddle.
McCarthy then responded to his veteran quarterback with a foul-mouthed message of his own. ‘F***ing a**hole,’ the Steelers head coach said.
After the game, McCarthy addressed the confrontation and admitted he wished he had chosen his words more carefully.
‘Communication sometimes is not the best choice of words, but everybody’s competing on the field,’ McCarthy said.
Aaron Rodgers was involved in a foul-mouthed clash with Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy
Cameras caught Steelers coach McCarthy appearing to call Rodgers a ‘f***ing a**hole’
‘And I think what’s said on the field, the way I grew up in this game, usually stays on the field. That’s not the case today, I understand that. But yeah, any negative communication on my part, I wish I wouldn’t use those words.’
It was not the first time this season that Rodgers’ frustrations have boiled over. During the Steelers’ recent win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the quarterback snapped once more.
CBS cameras caught him saying to the sidelines: ‘That play f***in sucks a**. F***ing sucks a**!’
After Pittsburgh’s 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots, meanwhile, the 42-year-old quarterback bemoaned his team’s play-calling issues.
‘In a game like today where there wasn’t a lot of flow to it, we need to be better,’ Rodgers said after the Steelers amassed just 235 yards of offense.
‘And that starts with me at making sure Mike knows what’s working, what’s not working, our coaches know, so we can call stuff that we feel like has a better chance.’
Rodgers and McCarthy spent more than a decade working together in Green Bay and together they led the Packers to Super Bowl glory at the end of the 2010 season.
They were reunited ahead of the 2026 campaign, which will be Rodgers’ last season of a glittering career.
The quarterback was not the only Steelers star to lose his cool during Thursday’s loss in Cleveland. At one point, TJ Watt snatched a coach’s headset and shouted at his defensive coordinator.
