Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets QB and one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, winner and MVP of Super Bowl XLV, two-time league Most Valuable Player, record holder and future Hall of Fame member.
Aaron Charles Rodgers was born on December 2, 1983, in Chico, California. His family moved from place to place several times, for several years they lived in Oregon where Aaron played Little League baseball.
In 1997, he returned to Chico where he graduated from high school, along the way setting several of its records.
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Despite his excellent statistics, colleges showed no interest in Rodgers as a quarterback. He himself wanted to play for Florida State under coach Bobby Bowden, but was turned down.
At the University of Illinois, Aaron was offered to compete for a scholarship as a walk-on. Later in an interview he said that coaches were deterred by his anthropometric data: in school at a height of 178 cm he weighed 75 kg. That's when he decided to quit football and get a law degree.
That's how Rodgers ended up at Butte Community College. In his first season with his team, he scored 26 touchdowns in 11 games and led it to win the Northern California Conference championship. Ted Tedford, the UCLA coach who came to the Butte game to watch the tiebreaker, was amazed that Rodgers hadn't ended up in the NCAA sooner.
So, after spending just one year instead of the usual two at a community college, Aaron found himself at a Division I program. He played two more seasons at California, racking up 5,469 yards with 43 touchdowns and earning a reputation as a player who very rarely threw interceptions.
Before the 2005 NFL Draft, Rodgers was considered one of the most talented quarterbacks available and many were pitching him to San Francisco, who selected him first. The Niners ended up opting for Alex Smith, and Aaron only left at No. 24 - Green Bay drafted him as a backup to the great Brett Favre. Rodgers was his understudy for the first three years of his career, playing very little, but taking an active role in coaching and studying opposing defenses, harassing his quarterbacks and analysts.
Aaron earned the starting quarterback job in 2008 when Favre first announced his retirement, then changed his mind and was traded to the Jets. He finished his first full year with 4,038 yards, along the way extending his contract for six years. Since then, the Packers have been unimaginable without Rodgers. In the 2010 season, he led the team to a win over the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, where he won the MVP award after gaining 304 yards with three touchdowns. The following year, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player for the first time, gaining 4,643 yards with 45 touchdowns with only six interceptions.