How did the Steelers of Aaron Rodgers’ first week meet?

Pittsburgh – William Parker was the first person to greet New Steelers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers While Rodgers approached the team structure immediately after 7:15 on Tuesday morning.

Wearing a black dress and shouting through a megaphone enclosed in dollar banknotes, the native of Pittsburgh and the longtime fan Steelers called to Rodgers while leaving a gray rover.

“Aaron, you broke my heart in the Super Bowl, but forgive you,” Parker said. Rodgers laughed and nodded to Parker, who walked on the sidewalk next to the parking lot, darting between the bushes and the black fence bars to get a 41 -year -old quarterback video.

Parker, however, was not only there for Rodgers. The 40 -year -old greeted the mandatory minicamp players in the last five years with his “cash megaphone” and posters, encouraging the players and implementing them to be involved in the local community.

Although Rodgers is a polarizing figure – a Parker previously associated with the ridicer of the loss of the Steelers against the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl XLV – Parker was optimistic, the quarterback could help bring a seventh Lombard trophy in the case of the team trophy.

“Surely I think other players will play at a certain level because they know they have a four -time MVP playing for the Steelers,” Parker said.

While Parker brought his suitcases on the sidewalk, inside the building, Rodgers was not waiting until a reckoning of the week 1 with jets to give the tone to his Steelers’ mandate.

It took more than 70 days between March’s visit to Rodgers in the Pittsburgh structure and his signature, but in the meantime he has remained in contact with the coach Mike Tomlin and the offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and the general manager Omar Khan. The delay in making his final decision, Rodgers said to the trio, was linked to issues in his personal life. The Steelers “gave him space and respect” during that period, he said a team source in Espn and contributed to happening to Rodgers.

“The relationship that fell between me and Mike came where, while I was going through my personal things, there was no other option for me,” said Rodgers. “He was here or not playing.”

With the situation around his “improved” personal issues, according to Rodgers, while the team concluded his second week of Ota and approached the mandatory minicamp, the discussions between the two sides intensified on the morning of June 5, according to a team source. The Steelers, although optimistic during the trial, finally started believing that the agreement would actually be realized. Thursday evening, Rodgers and the Steelers agreed to end the long courtship.

“I didn’t want to exchange the boys and sign, but be mentally or physically elsewhere,” said Rodgers. “Until I could be here and be all-in, I needed to take care of my business.”

Shortly after Tomlin opened the team meeting at 8 on Tuesday, Rodgers got up and sent the same feeling to his new teammates.

“This was the main message: it is all-in, ready to go from now on” Zach Frazier he said.

When Rodgers arrived at the structure for the first time, he asked the Tom Arth quarterback coach if he could make the playbook print. A boy from the old school, Rodgers said he prefers to take notes with pencil on the paper prints of offensive installations rather than using a tablet. Arth has sent the request to the administrative assistant Chrissy Bulger. Before the first offensive meeting of Rodgers, Bulger assembled a collector and also included a bag of pencils, tires and highlighters.

“After the meeting, Aaron came and asked, ‘Did you say Chrissy put this together?’,” Arth was said. “She went further and she first thanked her for putting everything together, and returned the pencils, pen and highlighters and said:” I have already bought mine. And I don’t want you to have to order more. “

“It was only a very thoughtful way to present himself to Chrissy and start building that relationship. It decidedly distinguished me.”

Although Rodgers reported to the organization that he was all-in by signing his contract and referring to Minicamp, he did not immediately take on a complete completion of tasks in practice. This was Tomlin’s idea, Rodgers said, while the Quarterback takes care of the organization and the offensive scheme.

“Many of these things are things I have done before, but there are new terms and new types of words of movement and different things,” said Rodgers. “I am learning. I intend to go through individual things. I told Mike, if he wants me to practice me [work] Until I have the offense. “

Rodgers went largely in fourth place Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson AND Will Howard During the individual quarterback exercises in its first two days. During the team periods, he watched from behind the game, studying the practice script and chatting with Smith, Arth and the offensive assistant Matt Baker.

“I just want to be a leader of the servant here,” said Rodgers, “and to transmit only the knowledge I have been for 20 years, the experience and only I try to adapt to the boys, get to know them, let me know and enjoy the process.”

Among the periods of Tuesday’s practice, the players approached Rodgers with extensive hands. Rookie Outside Linebacker Jack Sawyer18 years of Junior of Rodgers, he was among those who made the introduction of the half -practice handshake.

“This is one of the quarterback that you grow up and emulate in the courtyard, launching football when you are a child,” Sawyer said. “And now being here in my beginner and having it as a teammate is rather surreal. And what is fun is, my grandmother was a big fan of packers and loves Aaron Rodgers, so it probably called me 10 times in the last week to ask me how it is and how it is.”

Sawyer’s best friend and the teammate of the State of Ohio Howard asked the same thing before meeting Rodgers during the weekend. And he was surprised by his first impression of star quarterback.

“You would think this famous-time-time-time boy know Aaron Rodgers, but he is super concrete and at all what you would expect,” said Howard. “And only super nice on the last day I spoke to him.”

After finishing his first practice, Rodgers was faced with a worn outdated background next to the practice field and turned to a fleet of cameras and a horde of media members, comparing the vortex with the first day of school.

In fact, the three -day mandatory minicamp was more similar to a long meeting in the evening before the start of the school year. Rodgers will not return around all his teammates until the Steelers refer to the training camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, July 23, and it is not likely to return to the practice structure until the field stops in mid -August. In the meantime, however, he has a summer reading assignment – his playbook – and perhaps he will participate in a launch session or two with his new teammates.

“I just have to try to convince them to come to Malibu [California]”He said with a smart smile.” It will be a difficult sale, I think, a difficult sale. “

NFL Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano journalists contributed to this story.