Mark Madden's Hot Take: Plenty of reasons for Steelers to avoid trading for Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers isn’t just NFL MVP. He’s the de facto boss of the football media.

Rodgers’ horse manure gets spread wherever he wants. He also has his bully pulpit on Pat McAfee’s radio show.

The latest “news” about Rodgers says Green Bay has trades in place with the Steelers, Denver and Tennessee. Rodgers reportedly has contracts negotiated with those teams, also. Rodgers just has to pick his new club, or decide to stay with Green Bay.

What a crock. It’s wholly unbelievable. The Packers leaked a denial.

Rodgers may be football’s best quarterback. But setting up a smorgasbord where several franchises are at his whim beggars belief. Would the Steelers kneel at that altar?

Uh, maybe. Owner Art Rooney II is a bit of a mark.

But it’s much likelier that the scenario is fiction, and that Rodgers stays with Green Bay.

Here’s a brief recap of why the Steelers shouldn’t get Rodgers:

• Would kill their future by sacrificing too many draft picks, including at least two first-rounders.

• Rodgers’ paycheck — he’s said to want $50 million per season — would wreck their salary cap, preventing them from fixing other problems.

• The Steelers aren’t as good as the Packers, who had Rodgers last season yet were one-and-done in the playoffs just like the Steelers.

• Rodgers is 38. Who knows how much he’s got left?

The Steelers would make the postseason with Rodgers. But they wouldn’t win the AFC North and would be hard-pressed to win a playoff game.

But the local stooge media already has the narrative in high gear.

A quick listen to Saturday-morning sports talk yielded the following:

“This is about winning a championship right now!” Uh, see five paragraphs above.

“What defense would you rather have, the Packers’ or the Steelers’?” Uh, the Packers’ defense ranked ninth last season, the Steelers’ 24th. So, Green Bay’s.

The Steelers aren’t close to a Super Bowl-caliber team. Rodgers would not get them there.

Here’s hoping nonetheless that fiction becomes reality and Rodgers plays for the Steelers.

He’s a narcissist with rabbit ears who is used to his water being carried and gets prickly when it isn’t. It’s a dream matchup for yours truly, especially when things go bad.