Aaron Rodgers: Enigma (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
Becoming
Relax your arm.
Yeah, like that. Just stay there.
Whoo!
Looks fuckin' sweet.
Yeah, now, let's see
how it looks when you're like that.
And I'll bring this, you know
- Yeah.
- Bites his own tail.
- That sounds good?
- Yeah, sounds pretty good.
I definitely connected with Aaron.
I mean, I also didn't know who he was.
No idea who he was.
- So
- He's a big football fan.
Yeah.
I think the day before,
I I think I searched,
I was like, "Aaron Rodgers."
I googled, and I was like, "Okay, NFL."
And then, you know, people then told me,
"Yeah, he's the most famous quarterback"
Quarterback, right? Yeah.
"in the whole league."
And like, yeah, one of the best.
One of them, yeah.
And I was like, "Oh shit, okay.
Whatever that means."
Me making a number change
this year from 12 to 8.
I wanted to get some sort of symbol.
And eight sideways is infinity.
So, definitely wanted the infinity symbol.
Then I woke up this morning.
And I had an intuition about a dragon.
And then it just
all came together from there.
Mmm, mmm ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
Watch the shapes begin to fall ♪
Keep the head above the system ♪
Keep your eyes towards the floor ♪
To make it into the league,
you have to be talented.
Aaron Rodgers
has a bright future.
Ladies and gentlemen, remember that name.
In order to stick around,
you gotta be consistent.
Rodgers has done it again.
To thrive
and have a long career,
you have to do stuff
better than anybody else.
Sets up. Plenty of time.
Rainbows deep down the middle.
- There it is.
- Touchdown!
I live between two worlds
of the extroverted
alpha leader of the football team,
the quarterback
Let's go, dominate on three.
- One, two, three
- Dominate!
and an introverted
lover of silence.
It's the people we don't know ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
It's a quieter existence ♪
It's the people we don't know ♪
I was kind of an enigma,
nobody knew exactly
what was going on with me of the field,
what I believed.
And when I became real famous,
family members said,
"Your life is too big. We need you to
be smaller. Don't talk about your life."
It always hurt me because
I just felt like you don't see me.
And so as I found my voice
to kind of question things,
I also found doing things that,
compared to what I grew up in,
would be considered
an alternative lifestyle.
Thanks to the work I did on myself,
I felt much more
comfortable in my own skin.
But I think it's a constant battle to work
on my communication off the field.
Are you vaccinated?
What's your stance on vaccinations?
I've been immunized.
He's creating the clear false
impression that he's been vaccinated.
He was lying.
I've been cast as the villain,
especially the last few years.
"I'm offended!
How could you possibly say that?"
I don't care who it's coming from,
or who said it.
There was definitely times
where it was part of the battle,
being able to fight back Being able
to fight back some of these narratives.
But it was heartbreaking
having my reputation take a shot.
Many have
noticed a dissolution
of our relationship with Aaron Rodgers.
People who
praise him would say
he's a free-thinker, he's out of the box.
His critics might say he's lost the plot.
Aaron Rodgers
ain't for everybody.
How the media has portrayed him,
that's definitely not who he is.
He's one of
the greatest teammates.
With Rodgers, it just feels
like you're either for him or against him.
It's the people we don't know ♪
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
Who am I?
Am I the football player?
Am I the off-the-field guy?
Watch the shapes begin to fall ♪
I used to really think
I could separate the two.
Keep your head above the system ♪
But you can't.
Keep your eyes towards the floor ♪
And that's something
I wrestled with for many years.
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
It's the people we don't know ♪
So, walk on
the field Sunday night,
and then two weeks after that,
throw on the field, pregame.
In four weeks?
Yeah.
I don't think it's that crazy.
I wasn't asking a question.
I'm sure you weren't.
What, we'll throw
the whole thing in the toilet?
And set us back, 'cause if you
start an inflammatory process
where it's too much,
it's not good, right?
So, take our wins
- Mm-hmm.
- with the end in sight.
- Lots of wins.
- Yes.
Do you need the elbow today?
I always need the elbow.
- All right.
- I don't want the elbow, but I need it.
I know. It's good for you.
- You're breathing, right?
- No.
- Okay.
- Holdin' my breath.
That's what I thought.
- You okay?
- Yeah.
I'm always okay.
I could take a lot of pain.
That has been established.
I have a hard time when people
say everything happens for a reason.
I believe there's lessons to be learned
in every experience,
but I haven't figured out
the reason for this,
and I don't feel like this was my path,
or my destiny, or my fate this year.
Breaking news.
In a trade involving six picks,
Aaron Rodgers is going
to the New York Jets. It's official.
Watch out, everybody.
Here come the Jets!
This is it. This is the missing piece
for the New York Jets right here.
Statistically the worst
quarterback playing in the NFL last year.
And now we go to Aaron Freaking Rodgers.
They've added Aaron Rodgers,
they're gonna get
Breece Hall back healthy,
this is a bona fide Super Bowl
contender in the AFC.
You think those boys, Sauce
Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Quinnen Williams,
you don't think those boys
are gonna take it to the next level?
We're gonna get
the scorched-earth tour.
Rodgers has something to prove.
It is on.
Yeah, the entire National Football League,
we just put you on notice.
Guess what? We're gonna kick your butt.
Here we come, Jets.
Red-18!
Protection breaks down,
and time runs out.
Down goes Rodgers,
and the sack from Leonard Floyd.
- There's a sack. I think
- Is he limping?
No. He's down.
Oh no.
It's his ankle. They got him in the ankle.
Holy. Holy.
The Jets worst fears
have become a reality.
An MRI confirmed today
that Aaron Rodgers has officially tore
his Achilles on the fourth play
of his Jets career.
It's catastrophic,
it will take surgery,
and it's a 9-to-12-month injury,
which means he would
be done for the season.
I don't think
there was ever a time
where hope had transcended to expectations
for the New York Jets
the way that they did this offseason.
Devastation is the word.
It's over. Four snaps.
That's all we were allowed
by the football gods.
I'm not sure
he's gonna wanna go out like that.
There's so many questions still to be
answered from the Aaron Rodgers camp.
I put so much into this,
and I care about it so much.
And then have it just
taken away in an instant,
four plays into a season.
It's been pretty jarring, mentally.
I haven't experienced that much grief
in my life, probably.
My goal is to get on the practice field
by my 40th birthday,
which would be at
eleven weeks.
And then
to play by
Christmas Eve.
What does the future hold
for Aaron Rodgers?
I think retirement
should be on the board.
I don't think anybody could
fault him if he decided to just hang
- Nobody would.
- No.
That is a very tough
injury to overcome,
and I don't know if he's wanting
to put that kind of time in,
in order for you
to come back with the New York Jets.
What is the recovery time?
What are you being told,
and what are the next steps?
There's a lot of different ideas
about the overall length of the rehab.
I think what I'd like to say is,
just because somebody
hasn't ever done it a certain way,
doesn't mean it's not possible.
You're trying to be the fastest guy ever
to come back from an Achilles injury?
There's definitely some odds stacked
against me based on age, but I like it.
Stack all the odds up against me,
and see what happens.
You saying
you're coming back this season?
Are you coming back
for the playoffs this year?
I think, as Kevin Garnett said,
anything's possible.
Wow. Wow.
There is no way
that guy's playing this year.
There is no way.
I don't think
he's coming back.
It's going to be a struggle
at age 40 dealing with that injury.
You're talking about
an eight to a 12-month injury.
Rehabbing.
I have it different
than the normal person,
even the normal football player,
who looks at their career,
they have many, many years left. I don't.
So to lose this year completely, to me,
seems like an unnecessary concession.
I don't feel like
I have anything to prove,
and everything to prove in other respects.
The next couple years,
I'm coming back to do it all.
I want to put up numbers, I want to
win MVP, and I want to win a Super Bowl.
Football is like that girl that got away
that you were hoping
comes back around to you.
She never got away.
She just was
playing hard-to-get for a while,
but once I started playing 8th grade,
I mean, it's been love at
Love at first play.
Two minutes to go.
San Francisco needs three.
On first down, Montana to Rice again,
and he's out of bounds.
It was a feeling that I had in
my body when I watched Joe Montana lead
the Niners on a 92-yard drive
in the Super Bowl against the Bengals.
Montana
not wasting any time, no huddle.
Just listening
to the crowd through the TV,
feeling the excitement in the room
of cousins and uncles and aunts
and grandparents.
Everybody was a Niner fan.
Just to see the excitement that this game
gave them, and who they were pulling for,
"I want to be that person."
Montana, touchdown!
I wanna be that guy with
the chance to impact the game,
and to bring cheer and joy
to people's homes,
and to entertain people
by doing something at the highest level.
The game is over!
San Francisco has won Super Bowl XXIII.
So when I got to high school,
I wasn't very good freshman year.
I was tiny. I was like 5'6",
you know, 130 pounds or something.
I was tiny.
So that wasn't a great year for me.
But there was a few really
important people that influenced me.
There was a junior and senior quarterback
named Danny Meehan,
and he was like a big brother to me
in high school.
We were both playing football.
We used to stick around after practice,
and learn some of the reads
or some of the routes together,
and work on some things,
and he'd ask me to come out and throw.
We'd just do the line throws,
and start at 10 yards,
and go back to 15, and 20, and 25, and 30,
and 35, maybe as a freshman,
that was about the max I could do.
But that started to grow the more I threw,
and the accuracy started to come.
But you could see
that he was very focused,
very talented in his footwork,
and then how passionate
he was about football.
Rodgers' pass is complete.
He took it onto
himself to increase his strength,
increase his fitness,
increase his mentality.
I would consider myself
lazy compared to him,
because he was doing ladder drills,
plyometrics, and box jumps.
He just had that drive inside of him.
It wasn't someone fueling him to do it.
It was him.
He's always been very astute,
what's going on, and he could visualize.
So he could watch
what was happening in front of him,
and be able to respond.
Okay, he got it. Just like that.
He would come in Monday
and talk about the 49er game,
and talk about coverages,
and comment on the game.
"Why didn't they do this?
Should've done that."
Which is unlike any kid I've ever had.
That's what separates him
from so many others.
It's how he processes information.
Any two-digit number,
I can give you the square
in a short amount of time.
Wow.
There's a trick to it.
I was gonna say,
"Is there a trick?"
Like, 25. What's 25 squared?
- Six twenty-five.
- Okay.
You take 25, you go up and down
to a round number.
- So you go up five and down five.
- Okay.
Thirty times twenty is 600.
You take the square of however much
you went up and down, five,
and add that to it.
A harder one would be like
Do you learn these tricks, or
Thirty-four, right? So 34.
So you go down to 30 and up to 38.
So the same amount up and down.
I went up four. So 30 times 38 is 1140.
Then you add 16 to that, so it's 1156.
- Stuff like that. Or percentages.
- Yeah.
I used to play
this baseball game growing up.
It's called Strat-O-Matic.
It's this dice game
where you had cards in front of you
that had a player on them, and three rows.
Um results. So you roll three die.
The first one is what card you use,
either your card, or the pitcher's card,
and the next two are
what result you're going to go with.
So I used to have a scoresheet,
make a lineup,
and roll the dice and play these games.
It was my favorite sick activity.
I'd watch Price is Right at 10:00,
and play Strat-O-Matic all afternoon.
Then I had to do all the stats,
so I'd do batting average,
and on-base percentage, and ERA.
So I got used to percentages and all that.
Mathematics play into
how you see the football field?
It's all percentages.
There's ways of saying it,
but you're throwing to the open guy,
going through progression,
but in the end, it's percentages.
So my go ball out there's
a 40% completion on a high one,
and a 20% on the back shoulder.
I have a checkdown that's
a 90% completion right here.
I gotta factor in what down
and distance it is,
who that guy is.
James Jones back in the day,
every jump ball to him,
would be 20% with most guys, 50% with him.
So that changes your mindset.
There's a 50% throw out there,
then I got a 30% here,
then 80% here, then 90% here.
In the end, it's all percentages.
There's a common thread
amongst some of
the greatest players I've taken care of.
Him, Kobe, Brady,
they all have a belief in themselves.
Sometimes it's a belief that their own
body doesn't follow the normal rules of
anatomy or physics or biology.
That's not always healthy,
but if you can corral that a little bit,
I think it can work in a positive way.
Listen, I believe in
the power of prayer and intention.
And from the first night this happened,
hours after that,
I was surrounded by a bunch of
really special people in my life,
and we just laid down a lot of prayers.
And I believe that that's an important
part of the healing process,
leaving room for the miraculous to happen.
The miraculous doesn't have to
be some supernatural woo-woo.
A lot of times we say miracles
are things that happened
that never happened before.
That's what I'm talking about.
So we combine manifestation,
will,
leaving space for the miraculous,
and you go to the best people
for the surgery and for rehab.
You surround yourself in positivity.
At least you're giving yourself a chance.
I just thought that I was a D1 player,
and that's what I wanted to play.
So we sent film out to probably 40
or 50 schools, heard back from a couple.
Purdue had sent a letter back.
It said, "Hey, thanks for your interest."
"Right now, you don't compare favorably
to the other athletes in your age group,
so we won't be
offering you a scholarship."
And I took that as the major slight.
That, you know,
you are specifically not wanting me.
And so it became
this motivation for me to prove
that that recruiting coordinator
made a big mistake,
that school made a mistake,
and it was multiple schools.
I think a lot of people
didn't want to pull the trigger
on an unknown, small town,
Northern California kid.
He was only probably
5'11 ", 5'10", 170 pounds.
That's one of the reasons why people
weren't recruiting him as heavy.
But he still had that quick release,
and good feet,
So he was kind of a hidden gem.
A lot of our kids
still have to go to junior college,
but they go to junior college first,
and that's where they prove themselves
to Division 1 football programs.
I was aware of
what people thought,
that I wasn't good enough
to play D1 football,
but I never let it deter me
that I could accomplish that.
I just needed
to prove to myself I can do it.
It was just like, "Not yet,
but I will be."
He was very disappointed coming
out of high school that nobody wanted him,
but we could tell that he's
a great athlete, better than people think,
and he's very smart.
We had a really intricate audible system,
we had a lot of check-with-me's.
One watershed moment
was when he did
his famous roll to the right,
planted, and threw about a 45-yard dart.
Rodgers lets one go long,
he's got a man down there!
What a ball into the end zone!
I shook my head. I said
to the coaches, "Did you see that?"
He is a absolute stone-cold competitor.
Aaron Rodgers is a winner,
and I would say right now,
he's the best quarterback
that's ever come out of the north state.
I'll tell you that now.
It felt good to have somebody
believe in me enough
to allow me to do things that I end up
becoming great at in the league.
Checking things at the line of scrimmage,
getting off some good plays,
being aggressive.
That was our stigma that
we were some tough son of bitches.
We're going to get after you, hit you,
beat you, and thump you,
and trash talk you,
and not take the pedal off the gas.
And that's how we played.
We would pound teams.
Going after teams, trying to bury 'em
was our mindset.
The expectation was that all the time.
It was greatness, it was dominance,
it was an attitude.
You know, it's been fun.
Butte has been everything I've ever hoped,
and even more.
And Coach Rigsbee and his staff,
you can't say enough about them.
I saw as the year went on,
he got more comfortable,
and he became a really good leader.
The guys, they loved him.
They thought he was a great teammate.
Come on, baby!
Fucking missed you guys, man.
We missed you.
It's been tough.
17 days.
It was a tough 17 days, but
The season ain't over yet.
There's a lot of fucking people on TV,
who think they know about football
trying to write us off.
I'm just wondering, who are we?
Are we the team that came together
in training camp?
And did hard knocks.
And let the world see our personality,
our character,
and our pride.
Or are we the team
that's going to fold it up?
Say, "You know what?
This wasn't our year."
Three goddamn games into the season?
Three fucking games.
Last year y'all were 1-2, right?
And then a team came
to fucking Lambeau Field,
the hallowed ground
where I played 18 years,
and beat the fucking shit out of us.
And then your head coach saying,
"All we had to do was drag 'em
to deep water, and they'd give up."
I've been thinking, "Goddamn,
I wanna be a part of something like this."
We got confidence.
We got fucking dogs.
We got dudes who care about this shit.
That's why I'm here.
I love this team.
It sucks fucking not being able
to be out there with y'all.
But who are we going to be tomorrow?
You got the fucking world champs
coming into JetLife Stadium.
All I want to see tomorrow night
is you guys just remembering who you are.
You're the fucking New York Jets,
and you deserve to be
sitting in this room. You've earned it.
You had a journey to get to this place.
And my journey is fucking
excited to be walking today.
But your journey tomorrow night
is it go out there
and fucking ball, whatever happens.
And stick together.
Excited to be here with you guys.
Love you. I miss you.
Thanks for reaching out,
and let's fucking get the job done.
Yes, sir!
You feel good
not taking the Toradol?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- It's just going to numb me.
- Yeah.
Honestly, I don't want that.
- You want to be able to feel it.
- Yeah.
Wanna be able to feel it.
I'm out there just walking around.
I gotta be careful. Once I get out there,
and there's a ball, I'm going to
start trying to throw it.
I need to just, like, chill out.
Welcome back.
Welcome back, man.
- Hey, what's going on?
- Hey!
What's up?
- How are you?
- Good to see you.
Chill out, bro. Let me just do my thing.
Come on. Just show 'em I can walk.
- Hey!
- Wow!
Did they move me already?
Oh, no. Okay. All right.
They didn't phase me out yet. Good.
What's up, bro?
- How you doing?
- I'm doing good.
Just walking around a little bit.
I'm surprised you're without the crutches
and whatnot.
Yeah, come on. Surprised?
KP, what's up, bro?
Give me no love now?
Just 'cause I'm all banged up?
- How you doing?
- Good, buddy. How are you?
This is an important energetic day
because this is closing the loop on
September 11th, which was 19 days ago.
That was a rough moment for me.
Carted off the field
four plays into the season.
So now I'm walking back onto the field
energetically.
It's a big moment for me to kind of
take back that negative feeling,
and turn that into a positive perspective,
a positive memory,
a positive anchor point for me.
Aaron Rodgers,
putting weight on his foot,
just over a couple weeks from his surgery
has been driving all kinds of
conversation across social media.
The best thing that
we possibly could have saw in Jets land.
Guess who's back?
You guessed it, Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers told me
he had to be here.
He wanted to tell the team to relax,
to ignore the noise,
saying, "We're only three games in."
The Jets coming in here, 1-2,
playing the defending champs, the Chiefs.
Mahomes gonna
loft this one. And it's intercepted!
Hopefully,
he galvanizes this locker room,
and kind of like keeps the glue together.
Wilson throwing, end zone.
Touchdown! Allen Lazard!
If the Jets can hang on,
and come out of this
2-2 after the Rodgers injury,
it would mean so much.
Mahomes is sacked!
Green-18!
Wilson lost it
on that snap.
Tershawn Wharton
comes away with it for Kansas City.
Right now, the New York
Jets are thinking what could have been
in this game tonight
against the world champions.
The Jets are going to fall to 1-3,
and the Chiefs will go to the 3-1.
Rodgers told me he plans
to fly back to California this week
to get his stitches removed,
and aggressively continue
rehabbing over five hours a day.
His plan is to rejoin the team
permanently after their week 7 bye.
And he told me his goal
is to play again this season.
Butte was a very strong program,
but we weren't necessarily
looking for Aaron at the time.
I was watching
a tight end on tape, really.
and in watching the tight end,
like who's this quarterback, you know?
He really stood out
that much on tape to me.
Riggs came over and said,
"Coach Tedford's coming to the practice."
"We're gonna let you throw on the side."
Obviously, I'm nervous,
and it's funny now looking back because
when Coach Tedford walked up,
he was wearing these glasses,
like he always wears,
and I remember him, and this probably
is not even true, like, in a cape.
Like, six feet, eight inches tall.
That's what it felt like.
That's what the moment felt like.
I had one of the better throwing sessions
of my life.
Like, this day, I didn't miss.
I was just throwing accurate ropes.
It was very obvious that the skill set
of throwing the football was elite.
You had a brilliant career here
at Butte College,
and gonna be moving on now.
Is it Cal-Berkeley?
That's when it gets funny because
he gets my number,
and calls me that night on the drive home,
and in my mind,
I didn't know what the hell's going on,
I think he's gotta tell me
That's what I wanted to hear.
He didn't say that.
You did a real great job out there.
Once again, congratulations.
He didn't say that.
A couple weeks later,
he finally called back and said
"I gotta make a decision here."
I was like, "What are you thinking?
Do you want me?"
I said, "Like, scholarship?"
"Oh, shit. I'm so sorry."
"I thought you had to say, like,
'We want to offer you a scholarship.'"
I'd obviously never
been offered a scholarship.
It's going to be a dream come true.
I've always dreamt about
playing Division 1 football
and Pac-10's always been
my favorite conference,
it's the best in the nation.
It's gonna be a great opportunity for me.
California has not been
ranked this high in half a century,
and the expectations
are soaring for a special year.
Rodgers back to throw,
looks for somebody open.
Goes for the goal line, caught!
Touchdown Bears, McArthur.
Post pattern, what a bonanza!
We got along so well because
he was committed to what he was doing.
He was a student of the game.
It was really neat to work
with somebody that intellectual.
The famous thing that Jeff used
to do was that we'd play checkers.
But not actual checkers,
they were checkers pieces that
had different positions on them.
I'd have to line them up in a formation,
he would line his in a coverage,
and then I would have to
do some sort of motion,
move the players,
show who's blocking who,
who's running what route.
Aaron Rodgers
has a bright future.
Remember that name,
because he is going to be a superstar.
Oh, shit. He was saucy as fuck in college.
He was raw as hell though.
He helped me elevate
my shit to another level.
Marshawn Lynch, touchdown!
There's been a couple times
that nigga pulled me to the side,
"I want you to run a little bubble."
I'm like, "You know I can't do that."
He's like, "I ain't tripping off
what the coaches said,
this is what I'm telling you to do."
And that boy throw that ball up to me,
and then the coach comes,
"Hey, what the fuck you doing?"
"No, no, no, I told him to do that."
"So if you gonna be mad at somebody,
be mad at me."
I was like, "Oh, shit. He really
Oh, he mean what he say."
My junior year,
my stock wasn't going to get any higher.
Rodgers, a lot of open
field. Has a man. Throws it quickly.
I came off
an SC game where I threw
23 straight completions to start the game,
against the number one team
in the country.
That's 18 in a row
without a miss.
That nigga couldn't miss,
but
I think they was counting them
little screens and shit-ass passes too.
Them was extended hand-offs,
'cause I caught a couple of them.
The ball's thrown
to Marshawn Lynch.
It was a beautiful thing to watch too.
Remarkable afternoon.
He's got what, 23 in a row.
I've never seen
a quarterback do this.
Aaron was to the point then that you could
tell he was just at a different level,
and it was time for him to go.
And he had put himself in a position
to be, I think,
the best quarterback in the country.
So, of course, you need to go.
This is a good ball.
He's back! Two!
The hardest part
of this is the emotional.
Dealing with the frustration
of just not being normal. So
Physically, I'm healing.
Emotionally, yeah, it's still a rough go.
But every time I'm back here
I feel a bit better.
It's tough to watch.
It's really tough.
'Cause I know the plays.
I'm not intimately involved
in the game plan,
but I know the plays,
I know what we're trying to do.
So it's tough to not have any impact.
Zero impact.
When you're backup,
you're going through the look team,
and giving the starter some cues,
it includes maybe something on the field,
but I'm doing absolutely nothing.
And here I am, can't do shit.
Can't even walk normally.
I'm doing absolutely nothing except
living and dying, mentally,
and emotionally with
every one of these games.
Are you fucking kidding me?
God.
Sundays have been rough
watching just bad football, you know?
Especially offensively.
Oh my God.
You know, the goal is still to come back,
but we just have to stay competitive,
so I can have the opportunity
to make a decision.
Get on the ball!
Yeah!
Whoo!
Yeah, that was an important one.
I'm only going to come back
if we have a chance.
and the Jets
snap a three-game losing streak.
- Now it's gonna be a good night.
- There we go.
Jets could be interesting
going forward. They go to 2-3.
And they have some momentum and
rhythm with Zach Wilson in the offense.
Welcome to ESPN's coverage
of the 2005 NFL draft.
Some of the best players
are here with us.
Alex Smith, will this be his moment?
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of Cal,
or will it be the wide receiver
That year in the draft, I was
definitely feeling myself and thinking,
"No way I drop out of the top five."
"Top ten, there's no chance."
"Top five, probably not a chance either."
The San Francisco 49ers
are now on the clock.
I thought it was
kind of written in the stars.
San Fran had the number one pick.
I was a huge fan, local kid,
Bay Area kid, playing at Cal.
During the draft process,
he came to the 49er facility,
and we had a chance to spend
hours just talking football.
And he was very impressive.
Very bright, obviously.
Very confident. Very confident young man.
With the first selection
in the 2005 NFL draft,
the San Francisco 49ers select Alex Smith,
quarterback, Utah.
I thought he was
the best quarterback in this draft.
Slightly over Aaron Rodgers.
Alex goes number one.
The second pick was the Dolphins,
I hadn't really heard back from them.
Not sure if they liked me,
had a good meeting with them.
The Miami Dolphins select Ronnie Brown,
running back, Auburn.
Three was Cleveland. I was like,
"I don't think they'll take me."
Cleveland Browns select
Braylon Edwards, wide receiver
Four was Chicago, we hadn't
talked, "That's not gonna happen."
Cedric Benson.
I thought like five for sure.
If the Niners don't take me,
probably going five to Tampa.
Jon actually called me
the Thursday before the draft,
and said, "Love you, man. If you're
there at five, we're taking you."
So I was like, "This is awesome.
Jon Gruden, West Coast offense."
Florida. Other side of the country.
This is gonna be sweet.
Uh, that obviously didn't work out.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers select
Carnell Williams, running back, Auburn.
And I'm still hanging out
with my little flip phone,
and my hair gel, and my oversized suit.
All my friends are texting me
on my cell phone.
So every time it buzzes, I'm thinking
it's like a team, or something. No.
And I just sat there for hours.
And the way the draft goes
is they love you, right?
You're a top five talent.
Then when everybody's passing on you,
they start fucking piling on.
As you
break down Aaron Rodgers,
what are the things that jump out at you
that might be having
teams thinking, "Wait a second"?
There's a perception about
where he holds the ball,
and will it make him
late at the next level.
A couple of weeks ago, Aaron,
you were the clear-cut number one.
What's changed over that time?
I wish I could tell you.
I haven't changed anything.
I think it's just perception of me, or
maybe needs of the teams at the spots.
So I kind of like chilled-out
outside of the room,
I was just tired of being
on fucking camera the entire time.
Aaron Rodgers,
still a quarterback waiting to happen.
He's taking a walk out of the green room.
I don't blame him.
I was embarrassed, I was pissed,
I was going through an ego death.
- Raiders select Fabian Washington.
- Oh!
I was out for 45 minutes,
so, like, three picks,
and Green Bay is on the clock.
Things could get
interesting now for Aaron Rodgers.
Possibly Green Bay
looking for a quarterback.
No one's sure
how much longer Brett Favre will play.
Maybe one more season.
When I went to the combine,
Green Bay was
the most difficult interview.
It was like this.
There was a camera in front of me.
And a half-circle of people,
and I had to look straight at the camera.
So Green Bay was
a very difficult interview.
But I was like, "Don't worry,
I'll never fall to 24 anyway."
And so my phone rings
and it's a number I don't recognize.
It's not in my phone.
Pick it up, I said, "Hello."
And the rest is kind of a whirlwind.
The Green Bay Packers select
Aaron Rodgers, quarterback, California.
There you go.
Good for him.
I walked onto the stage,
hugged Mr. Tagliabue, the commissioner,
and he said,
"Good things come to those who wait."
What was this day like for you?
It wasn't the easiest day,
but I'm just so excited about being able
to go a team that wants me.
The draft process can make you
start really feeling yourself,
and thinking your shit doesn't stink.
And I really needed
that kind of reality check
that happened during that process,
so I'm definitely thankful for that.
Aaron Rodgers
couldn't help but be amazed
when he walked onto Lambeau Field
for the very first time.
It was unbelievable.
To walk on a field
where many greats have played,
and one of my favorite QBs,
Brett Favre, has played,
soon to be my teammate.
He's one of the greatest QBs of all time,
and I have a great opportunity
to learn from him every day.
I was a competitor, so I wanted to start,
but that was 100% off the table
once I got drafted by the Packers.
So I think in my mind I was thinking,
"Oh, sweet, I get to learn from
this guy, who is my favorite quarterback
post Montana-Young era."
Which will be pretty awesome.
But he wasn't super juiced on the idea
of them drafting
a quarterback in the first round.
So, at first he was
a little icy, shall we say?
My contract doesn't say I have
to get Aaron Rodgers ready to play.
Now, hopefully he watches me,
and gets something from that.
It was a big learning curve, for
sure. And Brett was close with the backup.
They were hunting buddies or whatever.
I was the odd man out for a lot of that.
I'm a California kid who's
dealing with the major ego death
of not being the starter anymore.
I can understand why I wasn't
first choice to hang out with
but it was definitely
a shock in a lot of ways.
Lot of change, a lot to navigate.
I'm the outsider in the QB room,
I'm the heir apparent to a living legend,
who wants to keep playing.
We're a terrible football team.
A lot of turmoil.
And the expectation's a championship
every single year.
Favre rolling.
And then he throws into traffic, and has
it intercepted at the three-yard line.
It humanized a lot of things
because I think we put
our heroes on a pedestal naturally.
You get to see them at some low points.
Dealing with being on a really bad team
and struggling.
He had 29 interceptions that year.
That's a lot of turnovers,
and just seeing how he dealt with it.
And it is picked off
by Deion Sanders.
It took a little bit
to get out of my funk,
I'm not starting, I'm not the guy.
It's going to be a while.
But God gave us two ears, two eyes,
and one mouth for a reason.
It's to listen twice as much as you talk.
And so I tried to watch and learn
from Brett as much as possible
to try and figure out this whole thing,
how to navigate it,
to try and be as supportive as possible,
to try and find a way
to bring something of relevance
each week to the game plan.
Back then, the team we were playing,
they would signal in their defenses,
and Aaron would study their calls.
By the second quarter,
a play would go in, and Aaron would say,
"Okay, watch the blitz."
Throw and the pass caught
I think he started
to respect me a little bit.
There was a friendship
that started at that point,
but never really a mentorship,
I would say.
Like, I kind of learned
it was better for all of us if
we bullshitted about life
and hunting and different things,
but like deep philosophical quarterback
conversations just didn't really happen.
Thankfully, I had a great
quarterback coach, and I could just watch.
I've always been good just like watching
and picking up things.
He took a lot of pride in,
during the week, running the scout team.
You know, that was his time to shine.
He approached it like it was
a game out there against our defense.
He had outstanding talent,
and I and the other coaches
thought that once he gets
his chance that he would do well.
Ready to go again?
- Always.
- Okay.
Here we go.
Faster. Faster.
Let's show 'em something. Come on.
- Well
- Six and a half.
- That's not what we're doing.
- Seven.
Seven and up.
Settle down.
You just focus on your running,
and I'll run the dials.
And walk it out.
It's not fast enough.
Most people are not doing the
walking that you're doing at this stage.
- I'm not most people.
- I know. That's been established.
This could run faster.
Just give me eight miles an hour.
Just for fun.
- For what?
- Put it on 25.
Okay, but I don't want you
looking at this.
I want you focusing on
what you're hearing in your feet.
Focus on what you're doing here.
See, now we're going. That's fast.
Faster.
I was very fortunate when I was a kid
to have parents who believed
I had a very low pain tolerance.
There's some lessons
that were hard to learn as a child,
and you react or you adapt,
or whatever it is.
I felt like there was many times where
my parents felt like I was a little soft,
and because of that, I made sure I was
the toughest motherfucker that I knew.
Anytime I had some sort of injury,
I was going to make sure I could
hold it together as well as I could.
I could come back quicker
than anybody said I would.
So dealing with pain has
always been kind of a way of life.
Go.
You got it, come on.
Yep, you got it. Rest.
40.1 in there.
Feels good.
Just somehow doesn't feel good enough.
- We're not giving in.
- My own childhood conditioning.
Huh?
My own childhood conditioning
coming through.
Jesus.
Five more. Come on.
We hung out with
some Navy SEALs this year,
they came into the Jets facility,
and they said there's a difference between
discomfort and pain.
We were holding up logs,
doing this log hold,
and he said,
"It's not pain, it's just discomfort."
Once you drop that log, you're fine.
Pain's getting shot in the foot.
Discomfort is just
the process of fighting through
the sensation you're dealing with.
I feel like I've always been able
to push through that.
Whether I'm dealing with a calf, foot,
or collarbone injury, whatever.
So, I'm definitely thankful to my parents
for thinking I was soft growing up.
We feel like the Achilles is still
has good tension on it?
Mm-hm.
Okay.
It's looking pretty good.
I mean, yeah, this is not usual.
This is not normal to see
this much activity.
I don't see any areas
that really are concerning here.
It's filling in nicely.
So, but I will say that,
nine weeks out,
seeing an Achilles like this,
that's not normal. That is, like, wow.
It's pretty good.
So what's the risk of playing
in a few weeks?
Well, it's still healing.
So, I think the biggest thing with
the Achilles is the stretching part of it.
You can't It's hard to undo that.
Once you stretch it out too much,
I've seen a lot of these tendons
afterwards and this is as good as it gets.
The stretching is really
the most worrisome part.
He can run five and a half,
probably six miles an hour
at 50% weight-bearing right now,
and tomorrow is nine weeks.
One week.
- We can reassess.
- We have one week.
- We'll reassess daily.
- One week then I'm going back.
I'm going back to practice.
Just so we all know
what's going on.
- One week to practice.
- It might not be full practice.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Going out there.
- Thank you.
And then three weeks to amp up.
Okay. I think that's
- That's fair.
- That's reasonable.
I'm not taking the three weeks.
Well, we're
No, we're gonna see.
Telling you what's going on.
This is what's gonna happen.
That's what we'd like
to happen, but we're going to see what
How it looks when we go.
I, you know
They may completely disregard
what I have to say
but we're going to see how it looks.
I won't completely disregard
what you have to say.
Might not listen to you.
But I won't disregard it.
It's hard to leave.
But I am officially retiring from the NFL.
And Green Bay Packers, and
I woke up and there's
50 text messages on my phone.
I was like, "Somebody died."
'Cause nothing would I ever thought
Brett's going to retire,
and it said, "Hey,
Brett's announcing his retirement."
It's like, "Damn, this is gonna be
a wild year. It's gonna be crazy."
There wasn't
any indication that Brett
was thinking about retirement that year.
But as an organization,
we felt we were prepared for that,
'cause we had the next guy.
We had a great offseason program,
and he was ready to go.
So has the Packers torch been passed
from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers,
or is Brett Favre still carrying a torch
for returning to Green Bay
for an 18th NFL season.
March 17th I came in here
and was told I was going to be the guy,
but until a decision is finally made,
I'm the starter.
That's my focus and what I'll stick to.
It appears Brett Favre is
coming back for a 17th season.
Commissioner Roger Goodell
will reinstate Favre
effective at noon Central Time, Monday.
The offseason, I'm the guy. Then Brett
decides to come back at the end of OTAs.
Then he shows up in town,
and everybody knows it.
There's like a damn Favre tracker tracking
his plane from Hattiesburg to Green Bay.
Fans cheered as Brett Favre
arrived back in Green Bay.
It was clear who the fans thought should
start at quarterback for the Packers.
We want Brett!
That whole transition
during that time was difficult.
'cause there was the fans and the media,
and the questions that he was asked
that he had nothing to do with.
Would you welcome him back?
Me and Brett have never had a problem.
There wouldn't be any issues between us.
Dozens of Cheeseheads
filled the Packers parking lot Monday.
In hopes of seeing their hero,
Brett Favre, return.
Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy
said he wants to talk to Favre Monday
before making any decision
and opening the job up to competition.
I'm like, damn, I knew he was at
the stadium meeting with the team.
They're just gonna fucking tell me,
"Hey, sorry."
"We're gonna let Brett come back for
another year, and you'll be the backup."
All this work I put in thinking
I'm going to be the guy, and excitement.
It's like, "Damn, another year."
That night I got a text saying,
"Hey, boss wants to meet you"
Boss being the head coach.
"in the parking lot in ten minutes."
I was like, "All right, cool."
I walk out to the truck.
McCarthy's out there.
Jump in. He basically says,
"You're the guy. Brett's going home."
"We said we'll trade him.
But it's your show."
I was like,
"Sweet!"
Aaron Rodgers is the starting
QB of the Packers.
We have made a commitment to move forward.
The team has moved forward
by making Rodgers
their starting QB this season.
We're excited about being able
to move forward as a team.
We wish Brett nothing but the best.
I thought he did an
incredible job staying on the high road.
He had to overcome things that were
not normal for a first-year starter.
When his time came in '08,
he was ready to go.
170th consecutive sellout.
They wait to see Aaron Rodgers debut as
the starting quarterback for the Packers.
He's handled a very tough spot very well,
but none of that matters now.
Now it's about what you do,
wins and losses.
The first game was important,
we played Minnesota.
I had everything to prove to the fanbase.
Three receivers in
the pattern. The first throw is complete.
The way he can win this
crowd and the way he can win this city
is to put points up, and to win.
A throw, and a deep one.
For Greg Jennings!
What a catch!
Look at the way
the crowd responds right now.
It's Aaron Rodgers,
and he's waking the echoes
of number four with a play like that.
It's a throwdown here.
Oh boy!
Touchdown!
My first game, I took care
of the ball, played pretty well.
Completed a high percentage.
And Rodgers
sneaking in for the touchdown.
Got a Lambeau Leap in you, Aaron?
Ran a touchdown in late
to put us up by two scores
and won the game, and that was
That was a cool moment.
I felt like, "All right."
Away we went from that point.
Here we go.
The New York Jets have opened
Aaron Rodgers 21-day practice window,
which means
the Jets will have the next 21 days
to decide whether Rodgers will be
activated from injured reserve.
Remember, he tore his Achilles
just 79 days ago.
He turns 40 on Saturday.
He is a force of nature.
This is the first time anyone's
done it in 79 days. This is insane.
Coming back
from an Achilles injury
suffered in the first few snaps
of the season is unbelievable.
Just spectacular.
I think he's going to play.
I do. I think he has a wild,
maybe unhealthy obsession with it.
Obsession is a young man's game.
But I'm trying to beat back Father Time,
and the expectations,
and the prognostications.
I feel like my leg has gotten
exponentially stronger in the last week.
So I want to get back on the field.
I want to be out there with the guys.
I love to compete.
If I'm healthy, I'm going to play.
I firmly believe
that he firmly believes
he'll be able
to come back and play this season,
if there is a season to be worth saving.
One way or another, they need to win
games, and maybe Aaron Rodgers comes back.
Miserable year for
the Jets in so many ways.
Not what anyone expected,
and it only continues here today.
That's 27 to nothing.
Jim, the way this game
is going, there's certainly a good chance
we will never know if Aaron Rodgers
would have been cleared to play.
I think the whole time
it's been hoping that we're still in it.
I'm not going to slow my rehab down.
I'm going to keep
attacking it every single day,
but now without a timetable to come back,
obviously we can be
as smart as we need to be.
With Aaron and his recovery,
it's like he didn't play,
but he was like our glue.
With him being in the locker room,
being able to come back
as often as he did.
It brings up the whole room.
He played a huge role
throughout the season.
Just hearing them
words of encouragement from him,
to somebody like me
and other guys around my age,
it goes a long way.
He inspires everybody
on our team 'cause we look at him,
and usually once you have
an injury like that,
being his age means
your career is pretty much over,
and for him to work that hard, and be
that determined, and be that locked in
to see how he's come back.
Just knowing he holds himself
to a high standard,
he's going to hold everybody else to
a high standard, which is inspirational.
Will next season be
the last dance for A-Rod?
I don't think so.
I feel like I can play more years
and I can be effective into my 40s,
which is crazy because I thought
I'd probably be sitting on a couch
somewhere at 40,
but now, I want to be starter at 40,
I want to be a starter at 41,
I want to see
what I can get out of this body.
I believe in
the leadership that we have here,
I believe in our guys.
And I think the future is very bright.
The first Super Bowl
in Las Vegas
officially underway.
There's bets on,
is it run or pass first play?
I bet you it'll be a run.
Open with a handoff.
I sat on this couch, many times broken,
pissed, and watching my team,
and now I'm sitting here
uh, healed, almost all the way up,
not watching my team,
and much happier
because after today the season closes,
so we can put a big bow on 23/24,
and move on to 24/25.
Screen.
I want one more run at this.
I'd like to have a couple.
I want one more run where I feel
like we're in it, we got a chance.
There's nothing like that feeling
when you get in the playoffs,
and anything can happen.
And you got the team to make the run,
which we do.
That's when it gets fun.
That's when the excitement
you had when you were kid watching this,
when I was six years old,
watching the Niners,
dreaming about playing on these days,
not sitting on my ass in this couch.
What the hell is that
fucking safety doing? It's a pick.
The main thing that I learned through this
was what my edge
is now for capacity to deal with pain,
capacity to wake up every day
and go to rehab,
and then come home and do rehab,
and to be able to push
through the rough days
as much as I enjoyed the great days.
So as this game ends today
and we put a close to this season,
the frustration, the pain, the struggle,
the agony sometimes,
is replaced by deep gratitude
for the lessons.
I think there's hopefully going to be
some gratitude that comes in
as we finally put this thing to rest.
Anything is possible
on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Pittsburgh Steelers
take on the Green Bay Packers.
The winner will be crowned
Super Bowl champion.
The goal was
to win the Super Bowl.
There was never any other expectation.
We all realized that,
and at the forefront it was Aaron.
You know, going back to his first year,
it was a young team,
and so it was a difficult year.
But you can see those guys really growing,
and then, you know, Aaron played at
an MVP level in the '09 season.
And then 2010,
we were slugging it out
to get into the playoffs.
Has Rodgers
lived up to expectations?
He hasn't.
He hasn't won a playoff game yet.
You got all these young quarterbacks
that are second and third year,
playing in playoffs and winning games.
Aaron Rodgers has gotta do that.
The commentary about myself was
he doesn't have a signature win.
So, I'm like,
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"He hadn't won a playoff game."
"Can't be an elite quarterback without
winning a playoff game." All right.
Rodgers,
into the end zone, touchdown!
Although we were the sixth seed,
we had this crazy belief that
we could beat anybody in the playoffs.
And with that,
the Green Bay Packers
will take this one in Philadelphia.
Beating Philly, that took a ton of
pressure off on all of us, on Mike,
on myself for sure,
on our young team that we had,
and so we felt so loose,
and playing with house money
against Atlanta, the number one seed,
I had one of
the greatest games of my career.
Just played really lights out.
What a night for the
Green Bay Packers behind Aaron Rodgers.
Then we played the Bears
in the NFC Championship.
We really cared about each other.
We had a different
type of belief that season.
Over the middle.
Picked off by Shields.
The Green Bay Packers are going to
ride to the Super Bowl on that.
Yeah, that was a really,
really sweet moment to win that game,
and to move on to the Super Bowl.
We are moments away
from kickoff of Super Bowl XLV,
the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and the Green Bay Packers.
When it comes to Green Bay's offense,
it is all centered around
QB Aaron Rodgers,
who now has his eyes
on the Lombardi prize.
I think we all felt like
the momentum we had,
though they were the number one defense,
was we were the better team.
Follow my lead.
Who's gonna be the big dog with me?
Let's go!
Nobody can stop us. One, two, three
Dominate!
The game is kind of a blur.
I've actually never watched it back
on tape. Never seen it.
Um, I've seen it in my mind,
and then there's a couple
amazing plays I feel good about.
Rodgers, Jordy Nelson.
Touchdown! Green Bay.
Just a perfectly thrown ball
by Aaron Rodgers.
Back of the end zone, Ward. Touchdown!
And this one was right on the needle,
and hits James Jones right on the hands.
We had a bunch of drops.
I feel like the game could have
gotten out of hand for us.
back in the game!
Into the end zone for a touchdown.
You can feel
the momentum shift
from one side of the stadium to the other.
Rodgers goes down.
As we start the fourth quarter,
Pittsburgh down by four.
Rodgers looking left, goes to his right!
Jennings!
Touchdown!
Any hope of a comeback
rests with this play.
The Green Bay Packers
have won the Super Bowl.
Aaron Rodgers, our MVP!
Yeah, man. That's a special
special night.
But weird kind of
What happened afterwards,
and it wasn't, like, a great party.
You're kind of exhausted,
sitting on the bus,
it's 1:00 a.m.,
you accomplished the greatest thing ever,
and you're like, "Damn, that was cool.
Now what?" You know?
Now, I've accomplished the only thing that
I really, really wanted to do in my life.
Now what?
You're like, "Damn,
did I aim at the wrong thing?
"Or did I spend too much time
thinking about stuff that ultimately
doesn't give you, like, true happiness."
I had this whirlwind where now
I'm getting a lot more
of the off-the-field attention.
So, definitely relationships
changed after that.
Aaron Rodgers'
younger brother Jordan
revealed their
family estrangement to millions.
I'd enjoyed my private life.
But winning the Super Bowl
changed all of it.
Aaron Rodgers,
Super Bowl quarterback.
Wide open
but overthrown is Jennings.
And Aaron Rodgers missed one there.
When you're a perfectionist,
you always teeter on self-loathing.
Nothing's ever good enough.
So it was eating at me.
Like, is this gonna be
the only thing I accomplish in life?
And so I was trying to find something
to rectify feeling that way.
Yeah, like that. Just stay there.
Whoo!
Looks fuckin' sweet.
Yeah, now, let's see
how it looks when you're like that.
And I'll bring this, you know
- Yeah.
- Bites his own tail.
- That sounds good?
- Yeah, sounds pretty good.
I definitely connected with Aaron.
I mean, I also didn't know who he was.
No idea who he was.
- So
- He's a big football fan.
Yeah.
I think the day before,
I I think I searched,
I was like, "Aaron Rodgers."
I googled, and I was like, "Okay, NFL."
And then, you know, people then told me,
"Yeah, he's the most famous quarterback"
Quarterback, right? Yeah.
"in the whole league."
And like, yeah, one of the best.
One of them, yeah.
And I was like, "Oh shit, okay.
Whatever that means."
Me making a number change
this year from 12 to 8.
I wanted to get some sort of symbol.
And eight sideways is infinity.
So, definitely wanted the infinity symbol.
Then I woke up this morning.
And I had an intuition about a dragon.
And then it just
all came together from there.
Mmm, mmm ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
Watch the shapes begin to fall ♪
Keep the head above the system ♪
Keep your eyes towards the floor ♪
To make it into the league,
you have to be talented.
Aaron Rodgers
has a bright future.
Ladies and gentlemen, remember that name.
In order to stick around,
you gotta be consistent.
Rodgers has done it again.
To thrive
and have a long career,
you have to do stuff
better than anybody else.
Sets up. Plenty of time.
Rainbows deep down the middle.
- There it is.
- Touchdown!
I live between two worlds
of the extroverted
alpha leader of the football team,
the quarterback
Let's go, dominate on three.
- One, two, three
- Dominate!
and an introverted
lover of silence.
It's the people we don't know ♪
Mmm, mmm ♪
It's a quieter existence ♪
It's the people we don't know ♪
I was kind of an enigma,
nobody knew exactly
what was going on with me of the field,
what I believed.
And when I became real famous,
family members said,
"Your life is too big. We need you to
be smaller. Don't talk about your life."
It always hurt me because
I just felt like you don't see me.
And so as I found my voice
to kind of question things,
I also found doing things that,
compared to what I grew up in,
would be considered
an alternative lifestyle.
Thanks to the work I did on myself,
I felt much more
comfortable in my own skin.
But I think it's a constant battle to work
on my communication off the field.
Are you vaccinated?
What's your stance on vaccinations?
I've been immunized.
He's creating the clear false
impression that he's been vaccinated.
He was lying.
I've been cast as the villain,
especially the last few years.
"I'm offended!
How could you possibly say that?"
I don't care who it's coming from,
or who said it.
There was definitely times
where it was part of the battle,
being able to fight back Being able
to fight back some of these narratives.
But it was heartbreaking
having my reputation take a shot.
Many have
noticed a dissolution
of our relationship with Aaron Rodgers.
People who
praise him would say
he's a free-thinker, he's out of the box.
His critics might say he's lost the plot.
Aaron Rodgers
ain't for everybody.
How the media has portrayed him,
that's definitely not who he is.
He's one of
the greatest teammates.
With Rodgers, it just feels
like you're either for him or against him.
It's the people we don't know ♪
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
Who am I?
Am I the football player?
Am I the off-the-field guy?
Watch the shapes begin to fall ♪
I used to really think
I could separate the two.
Keep your head above the system ♪
But you can't.
Keep your eyes towards the floor ♪
And that's something
I wrestled with for many years.
Let's be quiet for a moment ♪
It's the people we don't know ♪
So, walk on
the field Sunday night,
and then two weeks after that,
throw on the field, pregame.
In four weeks?
Yeah.
I don't think it's that crazy.
I wasn't asking a question.
I'm sure you weren't.
What, we'll throw
the whole thing in the toilet?
And set us back, 'cause if you
start an inflammatory process
where it's too much,
it's not good, right?
So, take our wins
- Mm-hmm.
- with the end in sight.
- Lots of wins.
- Yes.
Do you need the elbow today?
I always need the elbow.
- All right.
- I don't want the elbow, but I need it.
I know. It's good for you.
- You're breathing, right?
- No.
- Okay.
- Holdin' my breath.
That's what I thought.
- You okay?
- Yeah.
I'm always okay.
I could take a lot of pain.
That has been established.
I have a hard time when people
say everything happens for a reason.
I believe there's lessons to be learned
in every experience,
but I haven't figured out
the reason for this,
and I don't feel like this was my path,
or my destiny, or my fate this year.
Breaking news.
In a trade involving six picks,
Aaron Rodgers is going
to the New York Jets. It's official.
Watch out, everybody.
Here come the Jets!
This is it. This is the missing piece
for the New York Jets right here.
Statistically the worst
quarterback playing in the NFL last year.
And now we go to Aaron Freaking Rodgers.
They've added Aaron Rodgers,
they're gonna get
Breece Hall back healthy,
this is a bona fide Super Bowl
contender in the AFC.
You think those boys, Sauce
Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Quinnen Williams,
you don't think those boys
are gonna take it to the next level?
We're gonna get
the scorched-earth tour.
Rodgers has something to prove.
It is on.
Yeah, the entire National Football League,
we just put you on notice.
Guess what? We're gonna kick your butt.
Here we come, Jets.
Red-18!
Protection breaks down,
and time runs out.
Down goes Rodgers,
and the sack from Leonard Floyd.
- There's a sack. I think
- Is he limping?
No. He's down.
Oh no.
It's his ankle. They got him in the ankle.
Holy. Holy.
The Jets worst fears
have become a reality.
An MRI confirmed today
that Aaron Rodgers has officially tore
his Achilles on the fourth play
of his Jets career.
It's catastrophic,
it will take surgery,
and it's a 9-to-12-month injury,
which means he would
be done for the season.
I don't think
there was ever a time
where hope had transcended to expectations
for the New York Jets
the way that they did this offseason.
Devastation is the word.
It's over. Four snaps.
That's all we were allowed
by the football gods.
I'm not sure
he's gonna wanna go out like that.
There's so many questions still to be
answered from the Aaron Rodgers camp.
I put so much into this,
and I care about it so much.
And then have it just
taken away in an instant,
four plays into a season.
It's been pretty jarring, mentally.
I haven't experienced that much grief
in my life, probably.
My goal is to get on the practice field
by my 40th birthday,
which would be at
eleven weeks.
And then
to play by
Christmas Eve.
What does the future hold
for Aaron Rodgers?
I think retirement
should be on the board.
I don't think anybody could
fault him if he decided to just hang
- Nobody would.
- No.
That is a very tough
injury to overcome,
and I don't know if he's wanting
to put that kind of time in,
in order for you
to come back with the New York Jets.
What is the recovery time?
What are you being told,
and what are the next steps?
There's a lot of different ideas
about the overall length of the rehab.
I think what I'd like to say is,
just because somebody
hasn't ever done it a certain way,
doesn't mean it's not possible.
You're trying to be the fastest guy ever
to come back from an Achilles injury?
There's definitely some odds stacked
against me based on age, but I like it.
Stack all the odds up against me,
and see what happens.
You saying
you're coming back this season?
Are you coming back
for the playoffs this year?
I think, as Kevin Garnett said,
anything's possible.
Wow. Wow.
There is no way
that guy's playing this year.
There is no way.
I don't think
he's coming back.
It's going to be a struggle
at age 40 dealing with that injury.
You're talking about
an eight to a 12-month injury.
Rehabbing.
I have it different
than the normal person,
even the normal football player,
who looks at their career,
they have many, many years left. I don't.
So to lose this year completely, to me,
seems like an unnecessary concession.
I don't feel like
I have anything to prove,
and everything to prove in other respects.
The next couple years,
I'm coming back to do it all.
I want to put up numbers, I want to
win MVP, and I want to win a Super Bowl.
Football is like that girl that got away
that you were hoping
comes back around to you.
She never got away.
She just was
playing hard-to-get for a while,
but once I started playing 8th grade,
I mean, it's been love at
Love at first play.
Two minutes to go.
San Francisco needs three.
On first down, Montana to Rice again,
and he's out of bounds.
It was a feeling that I had in
my body when I watched Joe Montana lead
the Niners on a 92-yard drive
in the Super Bowl against the Bengals.
Montana
not wasting any time, no huddle.
Just listening
to the crowd through the TV,
feeling the excitement in the room
of cousins and uncles and aunts
and grandparents.
Everybody was a Niner fan.
Just to see the excitement that this game
gave them, and who they were pulling for,
"I want to be that person."
Montana, touchdown!
I wanna be that guy with
the chance to impact the game,
and to bring cheer and joy
to people's homes,
and to entertain people
by doing something at the highest level.
The game is over!
San Francisco has won Super Bowl XXIII.
So when I got to high school,
I wasn't very good freshman year.
I was tiny. I was like 5'6",
you know, 130 pounds or something.
I was tiny.
So that wasn't a great year for me.
But there was a few really
important people that influenced me.
There was a junior and senior quarterback
named Danny Meehan,
and he was like a big brother to me
in high school.
We were both playing football.
We used to stick around after practice,
and learn some of the reads
or some of the routes together,
and work on some things,
and he'd ask me to come out and throw.
We'd just do the line throws,
and start at 10 yards,
and go back to 15, and 20, and 25, and 30,
and 35, maybe as a freshman,
that was about the max I could do.
But that started to grow the more I threw,
and the accuracy started to come.
But you could see
that he was very focused,
very talented in his footwork,
and then how passionate
he was about football.
Rodgers' pass is complete.
He took it onto
himself to increase his strength,
increase his fitness,
increase his mentality.
I would consider myself
lazy compared to him,
because he was doing ladder drills,
plyometrics, and box jumps.
He just had that drive inside of him.
It wasn't someone fueling him to do it.
It was him.
He's always been very astute,
what's going on, and he could visualize.
So he could watch
what was happening in front of him,
and be able to respond.
Okay, he got it. Just like that.
He would come in Monday
and talk about the 49er game,
and talk about coverages,
and comment on the game.
"Why didn't they do this?
Should've done that."
Which is unlike any kid I've ever had.
That's what separates him
from so many others.
It's how he processes information.
Any two-digit number,
I can give you the square
in a short amount of time.
Wow.
There's a trick to it.
I was gonna say,
"Is there a trick?"
Like, 25. What's 25 squared?
- Six twenty-five.
- Okay.
You take 25, you go up and down
to a round number.
- So you go up five and down five.
- Okay.
Thirty times twenty is 600.
You take the square of however much
you went up and down, five,
and add that to it.
A harder one would be like
Do you learn these tricks, or
Thirty-four, right? So 34.
So you go down to 30 and up to 38.
So the same amount up and down.
I went up four. So 30 times 38 is 1140.
Then you add 16 to that, so it's 1156.
- Stuff like that. Or percentages.
- Yeah.
I used to play
this baseball game growing up.
It's called Strat-O-Matic.
It's this dice game
where you had cards in front of you
that had a player on them, and three rows.
Um results. So you roll three die.
The first one is what card you use,
either your card, or the pitcher's card,
and the next two are
what result you're going to go with.
So I used to have a scoresheet,
make a lineup,
and roll the dice and play these games.
It was my favorite sick activity.
I'd watch Price is Right at 10:00,
and play Strat-O-Matic all afternoon.
Then I had to do all the stats,
so I'd do batting average,
and on-base percentage, and ERA.
So I got used to percentages and all that.
Mathematics play into
how you see the football field?
It's all percentages.
There's ways of saying it,
but you're throwing to the open guy,
going through progression,
but in the end, it's percentages.
So my go ball out there's
a 40% completion on a high one,
and a 20% on the back shoulder.
I have a checkdown that's
a 90% completion right here.
I gotta factor in what down
and distance it is,
who that guy is.
James Jones back in the day,
every jump ball to him,
would be 20% with most guys, 50% with him.
So that changes your mindset.
There's a 50% throw out there,
then I got a 30% here,
then 80% here, then 90% here.
In the end, it's all percentages.
There's a common thread
amongst some of
the greatest players I've taken care of.
Him, Kobe, Brady,
they all have a belief in themselves.
Sometimes it's a belief that their own
body doesn't follow the normal rules of
anatomy or physics or biology.
That's not always healthy,
but if you can corral that a little bit,
I think it can work in a positive way.
Listen, I believe in
the power of prayer and intention.
And from the first night this happened,
hours after that,
I was surrounded by a bunch of
really special people in my life,
and we just laid down a lot of prayers.
And I believe that that's an important
part of the healing process,
leaving room for the miraculous to happen.
The miraculous doesn't have to
be some supernatural woo-woo.
A lot of times we say miracles
are things that happened
that never happened before.
That's what I'm talking about.
So we combine manifestation,
will,
leaving space for the miraculous,
and you go to the best people
for the surgery and for rehab.
You surround yourself in positivity.
At least you're giving yourself a chance.
I just thought that I was a D1 player,
and that's what I wanted to play.
So we sent film out to probably 40
or 50 schools, heard back from a couple.
Purdue had sent a letter back.
It said, "Hey, thanks for your interest."
"Right now, you don't compare favorably
to the other athletes in your age group,
so we won't be
offering you a scholarship."
And I took that as the major slight.
That, you know,
you are specifically not wanting me.
And so it became
this motivation for me to prove
that that recruiting coordinator
made a big mistake,
that school made a mistake,
and it was multiple schools.
I think a lot of people
didn't want to pull the trigger
on an unknown, small town,
Northern California kid.
He was only probably
5'11 ", 5'10", 170 pounds.
That's one of the reasons why people
weren't recruiting him as heavy.
But he still had that quick release,
and good feet,
So he was kind of a hidden gem.
A lot of our kids
still have to go to junior college,
but they go to junior college first,
and that's where they prove themselves
to Division 1 football programs.
I was aware of
what people thought,
that I wasn't good enough
to play D1 football,
but I never let it deter me
that I could accomplish that.
I just needed
to prove to myself I can do it.
It was just like, "Not yet,
but I will be."
He was very disappointed coming
out of high school that nobody wanted him,
but we could tell that he's
a great athlete, better than people think,
and he's very smart.
We had a really intricate audible system,
we had a lot of check-with-me's.
One watershed moment
was when he did
his famous roll to the right,
planted, and threw about a 45-yard dart.
Rodgers lets one go long,
he's got a man down there!
What a ball into the end zone!
I shook my head. I said
to the coaches, "Did you see that?"
He is a absolute stone-cold competitor.
Aaron Rodgers is a winner,
and I would say right now,
he's the best quarterback
that's ever come out of the north state.
I'll tell you that now.
It felt good to have somebody
believe in me enough
to allow me to do things that I end up
becoming great at in the league.
Checking things at the line of scrimmage,
getting off some good plays,
being aggressive.
That was our stigma that
we were some tough son of bitches.
We're going to get after you, hit you,
beat you, and thump you,
and trash talk you,
and not take the pedal off the gas.
And that's how we played.
We would pound teams.
Going after teams, trying to bury 'em
was our mindset.
The expectation was that all the time.
It was greatness, it was dominance,
it was an attitude.
You know, it's been fun.
Butte has been everything I've ever hoped,
and even more.
And Coach Rigsbee and his staff,
you can't say enough about them.
I saw as the year went on,
he got more comfortable,
and he became a really good leader.
The guys, they loved him.
They thought he was a great teammate.
Come on, baby!
Fucking missed you guys, man.
We missed you.
It's been tough.
17 days.
It was a tough 17 days, but
The season ain't over yet.
There's a lot of fucking people on TV,
who think they know about football
trying to write us off.
I'm just wondering, who are we?
Are we the team that came together
in training camp?
And did hard knocks.
And let the world see our personality,
our character,
and our pride.
Or are we the team
that's going to fold it up?
Say, "You know what?
This wasn't our year."
Three goddamn games into the season?
Three fucking games.
Last year y'all were 1-2, right?
And then a team came
to fucking Lambeau Field,
the hallowed ground
where I played 18 years,
and beat the fucking shit out of us.
And then your head coach saying,
"All we had to do was drag 'em
to deep water, and they'd give up."
I've been thinking, "Goddamn,
I wanna be a part of something like this."
We got confidence.
We got fucking dogs.
We got dudes who care about this shit.
That's why I'm here.
I love this team.
It sucks fucking not being able
to be out there with y'all.
But who are we going to be tomorrow?
You got the fucking world champs
coming into JetLife Stadium.
All I want to see tomorrow night
is you guys just remembering who you are.
You're the fucking New York Jets,
and you deserve to be
sitting in this room. You've earned it.
You had a journey to get to this place.
And my journey is fucking
excited to be walking today.
But your journey tomorrow night
is it go out there
and fucking ball, whatever happens.
And stick together.
Excited to be here with you guys.
Love you. I miss you.
Thanks for reaching out,
and let's fucking get the job done.
Yes, sir!
You feel good
not taking the Toradol?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- It's just going to numb me.
- Yeah.
Honestly, I don't want that.
- You want to be able to feel it.
- Yeah.
Wanna be able to feel it.
I'm out there just walking around.
I gotta be careful. Once I get out there,
and there's a ball, I'm going to
start trying to throw it.
I need to just, like, chill out.
Welcome back.
Welcome back, man.
- Hey, what's going on?
- Hey!
What's up?
- How are you?
- Good to see you.
Chill out, bro. Let me just do my thing.
Come on. Just show 'em I can walk.
- Hey!
- Wow!
Did they move me already?
Oh, no. Okay. All right.
They didn't phase me out yet. Good.
What's up, bro?
- How you doing?
- I'm doing good.
Just walking around a little bit.
I'm surprised you're without the crutches
and whatnot.
Yeah, come on. Surprised?
KP, what's up, bro?
Give me no love now?
Just 'cause I'm all banged up?
- How you doing?
- Good, buddy. How are you?
This is an important energetic day
because this is closing the loop on
September 11th, which was 19 days ago.
That was a rough moment for me.
Carted off the field
four plays into the season.
So now I'm walking back onto the field
energetically.
It's a big moment for me to kind of
take back that negative feeling,
and turn that into a positive perspective,
a positive memory,
a positive anchor point for me.
Aaron Rodgers,
putting weight on his foot,
just over a couple weeks from his surgery
has been driving all kinds of
conversation across social media.
The best thing that
we possibly could have saw in Jets land.
Guess who's back?
You guessed it, Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers told me
he had to be here.
He wanted to tell the team to relax,
to ignore the noise,
saying, "We're only three games in."
The Jets coming in here, 1-2,
playing the defending champs, the Chiefs.
Mahomes gonna
loft this one. And it's intercepted!
Hopefully,
he galvanizes this locker room,
and kind of like keeps the glue together.
Wilson throwing, end zone.
Touchdown! Allen Lazard!
If the Jets can hang on,
and come out of this
2-2 after the Rodgers injury,
it would mean so much.
Mahomes is sacked!
Green-18!
Wilson lost it
on that snap.
Tershawn Wharton
comes away with it for Kansas City.
Right now, the New York
Jets are thinking what could have been
in this game tonight
against the world champions.
The Jets are going to fall to 1-3,
and the Chiefs will go to the 3-1.
Rodgers told me he plans
to fly back to California this week
to get his stitches removed,
and aggressively continue
rehabbing over five hours a day.
His plan is to rejoin the team
permanently after their week 7 bye.
And he told me his goal
is to play again this season.
Butte was a very strong program,
but we weren't necessarily
looking for Aaron at the time.
I was watching
a tight end on tape, really.
and in watching the tight end,
like who's this quarterback, you know?
He really stood out
that much on tape to me.
Riggs came over and said,
"Coach Tedford's coming to the practice."
"We're gonna let you throw on the side."
Obviously, I'm nervous,
and it's funny now looking back because
when Coach Tedford walked up,
he was wearing these glasses,
like he always wears,
and I remember him, and this probably
is not even true, like, in a cape.
Like, six feet, eight inches tall.
That's what it felt like.
That's what the moment felt like.
I had one of the better throwing sessions
of my life.
Like, this day, I didn't miss.
I was just throwing accurate ropes.
It was very obvious that the skill set
of throwing the football was elite.
You had a brilliant career here
at Butte College,
and gonna be moving on now.
Is it Cal-Berkeley?
That's when it gets funny because
he gets my number,
and calls me that night on the drive home,
and in my mind,
I didn't know what the hell's going on,
I think he's gotta tell me
That's what I wanted to hear.
He didn't say that.
You did a real great job out there.
Once again, congratulations.
He didn't say that.
A couple weeks later,
he finally called back and said
"I gotta make a decision here."
I was like, "What are you thinking?
Do you want me?"
I said, "Like, scholarship?"
"Oh, shit. I'm so sorry."
"I thought you had to say, like,
'We want to offer you a scholarship.'"
I'd obviously never
been offered a scholarship.
It's going to be a dream come true.
I've always dreamt about
playing Division 1 football
and Pac-10's always been
my favorite conference,
it's the best in the nation.
It's gonna be a great opportunity for me.
California has not been
ranked this high in half a century,
and the expectations
are soaring for a special year.
Rodgers back to throw,
looks for somebody open.
Goes for the goal line, caught!
Touchdown Bears, McArthur.
Post pattern, what a bonanza!
We got along so well because
he was committed to what he was doing.
He was a student of the game.
It was really neat to work
with somebody that intellectual.
The famous thing that Jeff used
to do was that we'd play checkers.
But not actual checkers,
they were checkers pieces that
had different positions on them.
I'd have to line them up in a formation,
he would line his in a coverage,
and then I would have to
do some sort of motion,
move the players,
show who's blocking who,
who's running what route.
Aaron Rodgers
has a bright future.
Remember that name,
because he is going to be a superstar.
Oh, shit. He was saucy as fuck in college.
He was raw as hell though.
He helped me elevate
my shit to another level.
Marshawn Lynch, touchdown!
There's been a couple times
that nigga pulled me to the side,
"I want you to run a little bubble."
I'm like, "You know I can't do that."
He's like, "I ain't tripping off
what the coaches said,
this is what I'm telling you to do."
And that boy throw that ball up to me,
and then the coach comes,
"Hey, what the fuck you doing?"
"No, no, no, I told him to do that."
"So if you gonna be mad at somebody,
be mad at me."
I was like, "Oh, shit. He really
Oh, he mean what he say."
My junior year,
my stock wasn't going to get any higher.
Rodgers, a lot of open
field. Has a man. Throws it quickly.
I came off
an SC game where I threw
23 straight completions to start the game,
against the number one team
in the country.
That's 18 in a row
without a miss.
That nigga couldn't miss,
but
I think they was counting them
little screens and shit-ass passes too.
Them was extended hand-offs,
'cause I caught a couple of them.
The ball's thrown
to Marshawn Lynch.
It was a beautiful thing to watch too.
Remarkable afternoon.
He's got what, 23 in a row.
I've never seen
a quarterback do this.
Aaron was to the point then that you could
tell he was just at a different level,
and it was time for him to go.
And he had put himself in a position
to be, I think,
the best quarterback in the country.
So, of course, you need to go.
This is a good ball.
He's back! Two!
The hardest part
of this is the emotional.
Dealing with the frustration
of just not being normal. So
Physically, I'm healing.
Emotionally, yeah, it's still a rough go.
But every time I'm back here
I feel a bit better.
It's tough to watch.
It's really tough.
'Cause I know the plays.
I'm not intimately involved
in the game plan,
but I know the plays,
I know what we're trying to do.
So it's tough to not have any impact.
Zero impact.
When you're backup,
you're going through the look team,
and giving the starter some cues,
it includes maybe something on the field,
but I'm doing absolutely nothing.
And here I am, can't do shit.
Can't even walk normally.
I'm doing absolutely nothing except
living and dying, mentally,
and emotionally with
every one of these games.
Are you fucking kidding me?
God.
Sundays have been rough
watching just bad football, you know?
Especially offensively.
Oh my God.
You know, the goal is still to come back,
but we just have to stay competitive,
so I can have the opportunity
to make a decision.
Get on the ball!
Yeah!
Whoo!
Yeah, that was an important one.
I'm only going to come back
if we have a chance.
and the Jets
snap a three-game losing streak.
- Now it's gonna be a good night.
- There we go.
Jets could be interesting
going forward. They go to 2-3.
And they have some momentum and
rhythm with Zach Wilson in the offense.
Welcome to ESPN's coverage
of the 2005 NFL draft.
Some of the best players
are here with us.
Alex Smith, will this be his moment?
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of Cal,
or will it be the wide receiver
That year in the draft, I was
definitely feeling myself and thinking,
"No way I drop out of the top five."
"Top ten, there's no chance."
"Top five, probably not a chance either."
The San Francisco 49ers
are now on the clock.
I thought it was
kind of written in the stars.
San Fran had the number one pick.
I was a huge fan, local kid,
Bay Area kid, playing at Cal.
During the draft process,
he came to the 49er facility,
and we had a chance to spend
hours just talking football.
And he was very impressive.
Very bright, obviously.
Very confident. Very confident young man.
With the first selection
in the 2005 NFL draft,
the San Francisco 49ers select Alex Smith,
quarterback, Utah.
I thought he was
the best quarterback in this draft.
Slightly over Aaron Rodgers.
Alex goes number one.
The second pick was the Dolphins,
I hadn't really heard back from them.
Not sure if they liked me,
had a good meeting with them.
The Miami Dolphins select Ronnie Brown,
running back, Auburn.
Three was Cleveland. I was like,
"I don't think they'll take me."
Cleveland Browns select
Braylon Edwards, wide receiver
Four was Chicago, we hadn't
talked, "That's not gonna happen."
Cedric Benson.
I thought like five for sure.
If the Niners don't take me,
probably going five to Tampa.
Jon actually called me
the Thursday before the draft,
and said, "Love you, man. If you're
there at five, we're taking you."
So I was like, "This is awesome.
Jon Gruden, West Coast offense."
Florida. Other side of the country.
This is gonna be sweet.
Uh, that obviously didn't work out.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers select
Carnell Williams, running back, Auburn.
And I'm still hanging out
with my little flip phone,
and my hair gel, and my oversized suit.
All my friends are texting me
on my cell phone.
So every time it buzzes, I'm thinking
it's like a team, or something. No.
And I just sat there for hours.
And the way the draft goes
is they love you, right?
You're a top five talent.
Then when everybody's passing on you,
they start fucking piling on.
As you
break down Aaron Rodgers,
what are the things that jump out at you
that might be having
teams thinking, "Wait a second"?
There's a perception about
where he holds the ball,
and will it make him
late at the next level.
A couple of weeks ago, Aaron,
you were the clear-cut number one.
What's changed over that time?
I wish I could tell you.
I haven't changed anything.
I think it's just perception of me, or
maybe needs of the teams at the spots.
So I kind of like chilled-out
outside of the room,
I was just tired of being
on fucking camera the entire time.
Aaron Rodgers,
still a quarterback waiting to happen.
He's taking a walk out of the green room.
I don't blame him.
I was embarrassed, I was pissed,
I was going through an ego death.
- Raiders select Fabian Washington.
- Oh!
I was out for 45 minutes,
so, like, three picks,
and Green Bay is on the clock.
Things could get
interesting now for Aaron Rodgers.
Possibly Green Bay
looking for a quarterback.
No one's sure
how much longer Brett Favre will play.
Maybe one more season.
When I went to the combine,
Green Bay was
the most difficult interview.
It was like this.
There was a camera in front of me.
And a half-circle of people,
and I had to look straight at the camera.
So Green Bay was
a very difficult interview.
But I was like, "Don't worry,
I'll never fall to 24 anyway."
And so my phone rings
and it's a number I don't recognize.
It's not in my phone.
Pick it up, I said, "Hello."
And the rest is kind of a whirlwind.
The Green Bay Packers select
Aaron Rodgers, quarterback, California.
There you go.
Good for him.
I walked onto the stage,
hugged Mr. Tagliabue, the commissioner,
and he said,
"Good things come to those who wait."
What was this day like for you?
It wasn't the easiest day,
but I'm just so excited about being able
to go a team that wants me.
The draft process can make you
start really feeling yourself,
and thinking your shit doesn't stink.
And I really needed
that kind of reality check
that happened during that process,
so I'm definitely thankful for that.
Aaron Rodgers
couldn't help but be amazed
when he walked onto Lambeau Field
for the very first time.
It was unbelievable.
To walk on a field
where many greats have played,
and one of my favorite QBs,
Brett Favre, has played,
soon to be my teammate.
He's one of the greatest QBs of all time,
and I have a great opportunity
to learn from him every day.
I was a competitor, so I wanted to start,
but that was 100% off the table
once I got drafted by the Packers.
So I think in my mind I was thinking,
"Oh, sweet, I get to learn from
this guy, who is my favorite quarterback
post Montana-Young era."
Which will be pretty awesome.
But he wasn't super juiced on the idea
of them drafting
a quarterback in the first round.
So, at first he was
a little icy, shall we say?
My contract doesn't say I have
to get Aaron Rodgers ready to play.
Now, hopefully he watches me,
and gets something from that.
It was a big learning curve, for
sure. And Brett was close with the backup.
They were hunting buddies or whatever.
I was the odd man out for a lot of that.
I'm a California kid who's
dealing with the major ego death
of not being the starter anymore.
I can understand why I wasn't
first choice to hang out with
but it was definitely
a shock in a lot of ways.
Lot of change, a lot to navigate.
I'm the outsider in the QB room,
I'm the heir apparent to a living legend,
who wants to keep playing.
We're a terrible football team.
A lot of turmoil.
And the expectation's a championship
every single year.
Favre rolling.
And then he throws into traffic, and has
it intercepted at the three-yard line.
It humanized a lot of things
because I think we put
our heroes on a pedestal naturally.
You get to see them at some low points.
Dealing with being on a really bad team
and struggling.
He had 29 interceptions that year.
That's a lot of turnovers,
and just seeing how he dealt with it.
And it is picked off
by Deion Sanders.
It took a little bit
to get out of my funk,
I'm not starting, I'm not the guy.
It's going to be a while.
But God gave us two ears, two eyes,
and one mouth for a reason.
It's to listen twice as much as you talk.
And so I tried to watch and learn
from Brett as much as possible
to try and figure out this whole thing,
how to navigate it,
to try and be as supportive as possible,
to try and find a way
to bring something of relevance
each week to the game plan.
Back then, the team we were playing,
they would signal in their defenses,
and Aaron would study their calls.
By the second quarter,
a play would go in, and Aaron would say,
"Okay, watch the blitz."
Throw and the pass caught
I think he started
to respect me a little bit.
There was a friendship
that started at that point,
but never really a mentorship,
I would say.
Like, I kind of learned
it was better for all of us if
we bullshitted about life
and hunting and different things,
but like deep philosophical quarterback
conversations just didn't really happen.
Thankfully, I had a great
quarterback coach, and I could just watch.
I've always been good just like watching
and picking up things.
He took a lot of pride in,
during the week, running the scout team.
You know, that was his time to shine.
He approached it like it was
a game out there against our defense.
He had outstanding talent,
and I and the other coaches
thought that once he gets
his chance that he would do well.
Ready to go again?
- Always.
- Okay.
Here we go.
Faster. Faster.
Let's show 'em something. Come on.
- Well
- Six and a half.
- That's not what we're doing.
- Seven.
Seven and up.
Settle down.
You just focus on your running,
and I'll run the dials.
And walk it out.
It's not fast enough.
Most people are not doing the
walking that you're doing at this stage.
- I'm not most people.
- I know. That's been established.
This could run faster.
Just give me eight miles an hour.
Just for fun.
- For what?
- Put it on 25.
Okay, but I don't want you
looking at this.
I want you focusing on
what you're hearing in your feet.
Focus on what you're doing here.
See, now we're going. That's fast.
Faster.
I was very fortunate when I was a kid
to have parents who believed
I had a very low pain tolerance.
There's some lessons
that were hard to learn as a child,
and you react or you adapt,
or whatever it is.
I felt like there was many times where
my parents felt like I was a little soft,
and because of that, I made sure I was
the toughest motherfucker that I knew.
Anytime I had some sort of injury,
I was going to make sure I could
hold it together as well as I could.
I could come back quicker
than anybody said I would.
So dealing with pain has
always been kind of a way of life.
Go.
You got it, come on.
Yep, you got it. Rest.
40.1 in there.
Feels good.
Just somehow doesn't feel good enough.
- We're not giving in.
- My own childhood conditioning.
Huh?
My own childhood conditioning
coming through.
Jesus.
Five more. Come on.
We hung out with
some Navy SEALs this year,
they came into the Jets facility,
and they said there's a difference between
discomfort and pain.
We were holding up logs,
doing this log hold,
and he said,
"It's not pain, it's just discomfort."
Once you drop that log, you're fine.
Pain's getting shot in the foot.
Discomfort is just
the process of fighting through
the sensation you're dealing with.
I feel like I've always been able
to push through that.
Whether I'm dealing with a calf, foot,
or collarbone injury, whatever.
So, I'm definitely thankful to my parents
for thinking I was soft growing up.
We feel like the Achilles is still
has good tension on it?
Mm-hm.
Okay.
It's looking pretty good.
I mean, yeah, this is not usual.
This is not normal to see
this much activity.
I don't see any areas
that really are concerning here.
It's filling in nicely.
So, but I will say that,
nine weeks out,
seeing an Achilles like this,
that's not normal. That is, like, wow.
It's pretty good.
So what's the risk of playing
in a few weeks?
Well, it's still healing.
So, I think the biggest thing with
the Achilles is the stretching part of it.
You can't It's hard to undo that.
Once you stretch it out too much,
I've seen a lot of these tendons
afterwards and this is as good as it gets.
The stretching is really
the most worrisome part.
He can run five and a half,
probably six miles an hour
at 50% weight-bearing right now,
and tomorrow is nine weeks.
One week.
- We can reassess.
- We have one week.
- We'll reassess daily.
- One week then I'm going back.
I'm going back to practice.
Just so we all know
what's going on.
- One week to practice.
- It might not be full practice.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Going out there.
- Thank you.
And then three weeks to amp up.
Okay. I think that's
- That's fair.
- That's reasonable.
I'm not taking the three weeks.
Well, we're
No, we're gonna see.
Telling you what's going on.
This is what's gonna happen.
That's what we'd like
to happen, but we're going to see what
How it looks when we go.
I, you know
They may completely disregard
what I have to say
but we're going to see how it looks.
I won't completely disregard
what you have to say.
Might not listen to you.
But I won't disregard it.
It's hard to leave.
But I am officially retiring from the NFL.
And Green Bay Packers, and
I woke up and there's
50 text messages on my phone.
I was like, "Somebody died."
'Cause nothing would I ever thought
Brett's going to retire,
and it said, "Hey,
Brett's announcing his retirement."
It's like, "Damn, this is gonna be
a wild year. It's gonna be crazy."
There wasn't
any indication that Brett
was thinking about retirement that year.
But as an organization,
we felt we were prepared for that,
'cause we had the next guy.
We had a great offseason program,
and he was ready to go.
So has the Packers torch been passed
from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers,
or is Brett Favre still carrying a torch
for returning to Green Bay
for an 18th NFL season.
March 17th I came in here
and was told I was going to be the guy,
but until a decision is finally made,
I'm the starter.
That's my focus and what I'll stick to.
It appears Brett Favre is
coming back for a 17th season.
Commissioner Roger Goodell
will reinstate Favre
effective at noon Central Time, Monday.
The offseason, I'm the guy. Then Brett
decides to come back at the end of OTAs.
Then he shows up in town,
and everybody knows it.
There's like a damn Favre tracker tracking
his plane from Hattiesburg to Green Bay.
Fans cheered as Brett Favre
arrived back in Green Bay.
It was clear who the fans thought should
start at quarterback for the Packers.
We want Brett!
That whole transition
during that time was difficult.
'cause there was the fans and the media,
and the questions that he was asked
that he had nothing to do with.
Would you welcome him back?
Me and Brett have never had a problem.
There wouldn't be any issues between us.
Dozens of Cheeseheads
filled the Packers parking lot Monday.
In hopes of seeing their hero,
Brett Favre, return.
Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy
said he wants to talk to Favre Monday
before making any decision
and opening the job up to competition.
I'm like, damn, I knew he was at
the stadium meeting with the team.
They're just gonna fucking tell me,
"Hey, sorry."
"We're gonna let Brett come back for
another year, and you'll be the backup."
All this work I put in thinking
I'm going to be the guy, and excitement.
It's like, "Damn, another year."
That night I got a text saying,
"Hey, boss wants to meet you"
Boss being the head coach.
"in the parking lot in ten minutes."
I was like, "All right, cool."
I walk out to the truck.
McCarthy's out there.
Jump in. He basically says,
"You're the guy. Brett's going home."
"We said we'll trade him.
But it's your show."
I was like,
"Sweet!"
Aaron Rodgers is the starting
QB of the Packers.
We have made a commitment to move forward.
The team has moved forward
by making Rodgers
their starting QB this season.
We're excited about being able
to move forward as a team.
We wish Brett nothing but the best.
I thought he did an
incredible job staying on the high road.
He had to overcome things that were
not normal for a first-year starter.
When his time came in '08,
he was ready to go.
170th consecutive sellout.
They wait to see Aaron Rodgers debut as
the starting quarterback for the Packers.
He's handled a very tough spot very well,
but none of that matters now.
Now it's about what you do,
wins and losses.
The first game was important,
we played Minnesota.
I had everything to prove to the fanbase.
Three receivers in
the pattern. The first throw is complete.
The way he can win this
crowd and the way he can win this city
is to put points up, and to win.
A throw, and a deep one.
For Greg Jennings!
What a catch!
Look at the way
the crowd responds right now.
It's Aaron Rodgers,
and he's waking the echoes
of number four with a play like that.
It's a throwdown here.
Oh boy!
Touchdown!
My first game, I took care
of the ball, played pretty well.
Completed a high percentage.
And Rodgers
sneaking in for the touchdown.
Got a Lambeau Leap in you, Aaron?
Ran a touchdown in late
to put us up by two scores
and won the game, and that was
That was a cool moment.
I felt like, "All right."
Away we went from that point.
Here we go.
The New York Jets have opened
Aaron Rodgers 21-day practice window,
which means
the Jets will have the next 21 days
to decide whether Rodgers will be
activated from injured reserve.
Remember, he tore his Achilles
just 79 days ago.
He turns 40 on Saturday.
He is a force of nature.
This is the first time anyone's
done it in 79 days. This is insane.
Coming back
from an Achilles injury
suffered in the first few snaps
of the season is unbelievable.
Just spectacular.
I think he's going to play.
I do. I think he has a wild,
maybe unhealthy obsession with it.
Obsession is a young man's game.
But I'm trying to beat back Father Time,
and the expectations,
and the prognostications.
I feel like my leg has gotten
exponentially stronger in the last week.
So I want to get back on the field.
I want to be out there with the guys.
I love to compete.
If I'm healthy, I'm going to play.
I firmly believe
that he firmly believes
he'll be able
to come back and play this season,
if there is a season to be worth saving.
One way or another, they need to win
games, and maybe Aaron Rodgers comes back.
Miserable year for
the Jets in so many ways.
Not what anyone expected,
and it only continues here today.
That's 27 to nothing.
Jim, the way this game
is going, there's certainly a good chance
we will never know if Aaron Rodgers
would have been cleared to play.
I think the whole time
it's been hoping that we're still in it.
I'm not going to slow my rehab down.
I'm going to keep
attacking it every single day,
but now without a timetable to come back,
obviously we can be
as smart as we need to be.
With Aaron and his recovery,
it's like he didn't play,
but he was like our glue.
With him being in the locker room,
being able to come back
as often as he did.
It brings up the whole room.
He played a huge role
throughout the season.
Just hearing them
words of encouragement from him,
to somebody like me
and other guys around my age,
it goes a long way.
He inspires everybody
on our team 'cause we look at him,
and usually once you have
an injury like that,
being his age means
your career is pretty much over,
and for him to work that hard, and be
that determined, and be that locked in
to see how he's come back.
Just knowing he holds himself
to a high standard,
he's going to hold everybody else to
a high standard, which is inspirational.
Will next season be
the last dance for A-Rod?
I don't think so.
I feel like I can play more years
and I can be effective into my 40s,
which is crazy because I thought
I'd probably be sitting on a couch
somewhere at 40,
but now, I want to be starter at 40,
I want to be a starter at 41,
I want to see
what I can get out of this body.
I believe in
the leadership that we have here,
I believe in our guys.
And I think the future is very bright.
The first Super Bowl
in Las Vegas
officially underway.
There's bets on,
is it run or pass first play?
I bet you it'll be a run.
Open with a handoff.
I sat on this couch, many times broken,
pissed, and watching my team,
and now I'm sitting here
uh, healed, almost all the way up,
not watching my team,
and much happier
because after today the season closes,
so we can put a big bow on 23/24,
and move on to 24/25.
Screen.
I want one more run at this.
I'd like to have a couple.
I want one more run where I feel
like we're in it, we got a chance.
There's nothing like that feeling
when you get in the playoffs,
and anything can happen.
And you got the team to make the run,
which we do.
That's when it gets fun.
That's when the excitement
you had when you were kid watching this,
when I was six years old,
watching the Niners,
dreaming about playing on these days,
not sitting on my ass in this couch.
What the hell is that
fucking safety doing? It's a pick.
The main thing that I learned through this
was what my edge
is now for capacity to deal with pain,
capacity to wake up every day
and go to rehab,
and then come home and do rehab,
and to be able to push
through the rough days
as much as I enjoyed the great days.
So as this game ends today
and we put a close to this season,
the frustration, the pain, the struggle,
the agony sometimes,
is replaced by deep gratitude
for the lessons.
I think there's hopefully going to be
some gratitude that comes in
as we finally put this thing to rest.
Anything is possible
on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Pittsburgh Steelers
take on the Green Bay Packers.
The winner will be crowned
Super Bowl champion.
The goal was
to win the Super Bowl.
There was never any other expectation.
We all realized that,
and at the forefront it was Aaron.
You know, going back to his first year,
it was a young team,
and so it was a difficult year.
But you can see those guys really growing,
and then, you know, Aaron played at
an MVP level in the '09 season.
And then 2010,
we were slugging it out
to get into the playoffs.
Has Rodgers
lived up to expectations?
He hasn't.
He hasn't won a playoff game yet.
You got all these young quarterbacks
that are second and third year,
playing in playoffs and winning games.
Aaron Rodgers has gotta do that.
The commentary about myself was
he doesn't have a signature win.
So, I'm like,
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"He hadn't won a playoff game."
"Can't be an elite quarterback without
winning a playoff game." All right.
Rodgers,
into the end zone, touchdown!
Although we were the sixth seed,
we had this crazy belief that
we could beat anybody in the playoffs.
And with that,
the Green Bay Packers
will take this one in Philadelphia.
Beating Philly, that took a ton of
pressure off on all of us, on Mike,
on myself for sure,
on our young team that we had,
and so we felt so loose,
and playing with house money
against Atlanta, the number one seed,
I had one of
the greatest games of my career.
Just played really lights out.
What a night for the
Green Bay Packers behind Aaron Rodgers.
Then we played the Bears
in the NFC Championship.
We really cared about each other.
We had a different
type of belief that season.
Over the middle.
Picked off by Shields.
The Green Bay Packers are going to
ride to the Super Bowl on that.
Yeah, that was a really,
really sweet moment to win that game,
and to move on to the Super Bowl.
We are moments away
from kickoff of Super Bowl XLV,
the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and the Green Bay Packers.
When it comes to Green Bay's offense,
it is all centered around
QB Aaron Rodgers,
who now has his eyes
on the Lombardi prize.
I think we all felt like
the momentum we had,
though they were the number one defense,
was we were the better team.
Follow my lead.
Who's gonna be the big dog with me?
Let's go!
Nobody can stop us. One, two, three
Dominate!
The game is kind of a blur.
I've actually never watched it back
on tape. Never seen it.
Um, I've seen it in my mind,
and then there's a couple
amazing plays I feel good about.
Rodgers, Jordy Nelson.
Touchdown! Green Bay.
Just a perfectly thrown ball
by Aaron Rodgers.
Back of the end zone, Ward. Touchdown!
And this one was right on the needle,
and hits James Jones right on the hands.
We had a bunch of drops.
I feel like the game could have
gotten out of hand for us.
back in the game!
Into the end zone for a touchdown.
You can feel
the momentum shift
from one side of the stadium to the other.
Rodgers goes down.
As we start the fourth quarter,
Pittsburgh down by four.
Rodgers looking left, goes to his right!
Jennings!
Touchdown!
Any hope of a comeback
rests with this play.
The Green Bay Packers
have won the Super Bowl.
Aaron Rodgers, our MVP!
Yeah, man. That's a special
special night.
But weird kind of
What happened afterwards,
and it wasn't, like, a great party.
You're kind of exhausted,
sitting on the bus,
it's 1:00 a.m.,
you accomplished the greatest thing ever,
and you're like, "Damn, that was cool.
Now what?" You know?
Now, I've accomplished the only thing that
I really, really wanted to do in my life.
Now what?
You're like, "Damn,
did I aim at the wrong thing?
"Or did I spend too much time
thinking about stuff that ultimately
doesn't give you, like, true happiness."
I had this whirlwind where now
I'm getting a lot more
of the off-the-field attention.
So, definitely relationships
changed after that.
Aaron Rodgers'
younger brother Jordan
revealed their
family estrangement to millions.
I'd enjoyed my private life.
But winning the Super Bowl
changed all of it.
Aaron Rodgers,
Super Bowl quarterback.
Wide open
but overthrown is Jennings.
And Aaron Rodgers missed one there.
When you're a perfectionist,
you always teeter on self-loathing.
Nothing's ever good enough.
So it was eating at me.
Like, is this gonna be
the only thing I accomplish in life?
And so I was trying to find something
to rectify feeling that way.