How the legendary QB and a hard-nosed special teamer became Pittsburgh's newest Odd Couple

PITTSBURGH — Their relationship was a joke.

Literally.

At least, that’s how it began.

“I just tried a couple jokes on him when he was first here and he laughed,” Ben Skowronek said. “I figured out, you know what, we’ll probably be friends.”

And they are.

The special teams guy and the iconic quarterback, an incongruous match if ever there were one.

Ben Skowronek and Aaron Rodgers. Pittsburgh’s Odd Couple.

“I think he’s hilarious,” Skowronek said. “Sometimes jokes go over people’s heads. I always found him pretty funny.”

It works both ways. Rodgers is not just a future Hall of Famer — he’s a Hall of Fame prankster. He has found a running mate with Skowronek, a valuable special teams performer and backup wide receiver.

“His style of comedy is never-ending,” Rodgers said. “He’s the type of guy, I just like to lay a joke and let it sit, he just hammers it home. And then if it doesn’t work with the first person, he’ll go to the second person and the third person. If it works with the first person, he’ll do the exact same thing with everybody else.”

But what began with a joke has morphed into something more meaningful.

Skowronek, 29, and Rodgers, who will be 43 in December, have become good friends. Sure, they are tied together by a jokester’s mentality. But it is more than that.

They hang out and talk in the locker room, dine together, ride the same bus together to road games. Skowronek goes to Rodgers’ house and watches film with him. They even have played golf together, though Skowronek professes to not be much of a golfer.

Their connection is what happens with a lot of people: They find a comfortable common ground and bond for any number of factors, regardless of social status — or, in this instance, roles on the team.

“I just treated him like a normal person, I guess, and we ended up hanging out,” Skowronek said. “He’s a normal human that bleeds blood.”

A former seventh-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, he has found a home with the Steelers and a kindred spirit in Rodgers.

“Ben’s got a great contagious energy,” Rodgers said. “He has become a fast friend, for sure.”

It’s why Skowronek said he is beyond fortunate to be a part of Rodgers’ final season in the NFL.

“I’m just excited to go on this journey with him and soaking in as much as I can,” Skowronek said. “People can debate all they want — I think he’s the best quarterback to ever play, the most talented. That’s my perspective.

“At his age, some of the throws, even a throw today that he made, I was like, ‘Holy [expletive]! How can you do that?’ ”

But that’s not all he appreciates.

“It’s been good, though, to have experience like that, whether in life or football, just having a friend in a different stage of life than you,” Skowronek said. “It’s kind of unique, but it’s been great for me.”

Skowronek serves a unique role with the Steelers. He is such an accomplished special teams performer that he was named to the Pro Bowl last season. But he is a big, physical wide receiver at 6 feet 4 and 223 pounds, and he blocks like a tight end or fullback, depending on the role he executes in a scheme.

Oh, yeah, he occasionally catches passes, too — just nine for 138 yards in two seasons.

Still, it’s somehow fitting he caught Rodgers’ first touchdown throw with the Steelers, a 22-yarder in the 2025 season opener in New York.

“I think people may look at him as a special teams player, but I don’t like to view players that way,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “... This game is about numbers and how many players you can keep on your team. I’m going back to Ben because he has that flexibility. Ben does the dirty work.”

That, though, is what endears Skowronek to his teammates. He is one of the smartest players on the team, combining his ditch-digger playing style with a professor’s mindset.

“He knows football front to back and sideways,” said receiver DK Metcalf, another of Skowronek’s good friends on the team. “He’s in the film room coaching me sometimes, working techniques and scheme stuff. He loves football, loves being around us and hanging around with guys.”

And, of course, hammering them with jokes.

“The ultimate jokester,” Metcalf said.

Skowronek’s love of football and the knowledge he has absorbed are some of the reasons he developed a relationship with Rodgers.

He asks questions about what the game was like when Rodgers became a starter with the Green Bay Packers in 2008. And he is fascinated by what Rodgers has accomplished and talks to him frequently about it, whether hanging around in the locker room, traveling or just having dinner together.

“He’s definitely been an open book,” Skowronek said. “You can ask him anything. He’s vulnerable, whether it’s about personal life, football. He has a lot of life experience that we don’t have in this league. It’s hard. Everyone thinks we’re immortal, that everything’s perfect. But we have personal stuff that we go through.”

He added: “The advice he was able to give us young guys has been huge. He’s just always been there.”

And it all started with a joke.