You might know 35 year old Aaron Rodgers as the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback. And not just any quarterback—some sportscasters have gone so far as to call him the best quarterback of all time.
He’s the NFL’s all-time regular season career passer rating leader. He has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in NFL history, and he holds the highest single-season passer rating record of all time. He’s also one of only two QBs to have a regular season career passer rating over 100. So yeah, he’s good at what he does.
But is Aaron Rodgers more than just his stats? We take a look at the nine most interesting facts we could find about this NFL great, and answer that question.
Aaron Rodgers: 10 Facts That Are Just As Cool As His Game Stats
1. He already has an exit strategy.
Sort of. Rodgers is a huge music fan, and many fans in the Green Bay area have spotted him at open-mic nights with his guitar. But it turns out rocking the small stage isn’t enough for the NFL heavyweight—in 2009 he created his own record label. Suspended Sunrise Recordings is Rodgers’s passion project. Even so, along with his business partner Ryan Zachary, he signed indie pop rock band The Make in 2011.
2. Rodgers is ultra-competitive.
If you listen to the stories his teammates tell, the quadruple-time Super Bowler is on a whole other level with his competitive behavior. There was that time he dropped the f-bomb on Celebrity Jeopardy! Apparently he remembers every single touchdown and interception all the way back to when he was 14. And he still remembers (and reminds the coaching staff) that he was picked 24th overall in the 2005 NFL draft. Then there’s the rumor he once refused to talk to his teammates for days after losing a friendly locker-room card game. Not that anyone’s going to be mad about it—his competitive streak drives him to become one of the best in the game, a well-known fact about Aaron Rodgers. Even if the game isn’t football. Rodgers played baseball, where his fastball was clocked at upwards of 90 mph.
3. He’s still nursing a grudge against Alex Smith
Speaking of the 2005 NFL draft. Mike McCarthy—Green Bay Packers head coach—was part of the San Fran 49ers coaching staff that passed on Rodgers in favor of Alex Smith. You’d think that fourteen years later, and given the massive achievements under his belt, he’d be OK about it. But no—he still reminds McCarthy that he drafted the wrong QB.
Although it’s easy to claim McCarthy screwed up, Smith is still a major player. He’s scored 142 touchdowns in his pro career. No easy feat. But Rodgers scored 257 in the same period. Just sayin’.
4. He hates the draft process
Being passed over for one guy in the 2005 NFL draft is one thing. But 23 teams passed on Aaron Rodgers, and he still doesn’t seem ready to move passed that. Granted, a lot of pro footballers hate the meat-market feel of the draft process, so Rodgers isn’t alone. In an interview some years ago, Rodgers rightly pointed out, “far too much weight is put into your height, 40-time, and bench-press… But the things you can’t measure — your character, toughness, leadership — not as much weight is put into that.” The fact that Aaron Rodgers hates the draft process is not really well-known among his fans.
5. He’s loyal. $4.5 million loyal.
Remember the Ryan Braun steroid scandal? Rodgers—who was Braun’s best friend and business partner—publically supported the ‘Hebrew Hammer’ through it all. After an NFL fan called Rodgers out in a tweet, calling him “delusional”, Rodgers bet his annual salary that his BFF was innocent. When he made the bet, he was earning close to $300k per game. So you can imagine how excited that fan was when Braun’s lawyers accepted a 65-game suspension for the use of PEDs. In an article a while back, the fan claimed Rodgers still hadn’t made good on the bet, but he wasn’t holding his breath waiting for it either.
6. Rodgers has already made NFL history.
Whatever happens from here on out, Rodgers has the greatest Touchdown to Interception ratio of all time at a massive 3.95, a great fact about Aaron Rodgers. Joe Montana, one of Rodgers football idols—and the guy who’s shirt he used to wear under his uniform in college—has a TD:INT ratio of 1.96. Tom Brady, who comes in at second place to Rodgers, sits at 2.85.
7. Angelo Poli trains him in weird ways.
Ever the competitor, Rodgers is constantly pushing himself with new training techniques. One of the drills his trainer uses is to tape potato chips to Rodgers heels, so he has to—literally—stay on his toes during training.
8. He’s smart.
He appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy! with an astronaut—Mark Kelly—and an entrepreneur—Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary. And he won, an interesting fact about Aaron Rodgers. There’s also footage of him explaining his thought processes between the huddle and the snap, and it is magnificent.
9. He almost gave up on football completely.
Despite his stellar performance and the fact he broke every football record at Pleasant Valley High, Rodgers received zero Division 1 scholarship offers. Disappointed and dispirited, he considered focusing on law school studies instead. Luckily for the rest of America, he didn’t stay down long. He saved every college rejection letter he received, and still has two of them displayed in his Green Bay home.
10. He knows how to have a good time.
He embraced his inner child to dress up as Uncle Rico—from Napoleon Dynamite—for Halloween, and his long-time girlfriend, Danica Patrick, got in on the action. The retired pro racing driver dressed as Deb, and posted the evidence to Instagram.
Conclusion
Aaron Rodgers has some of the most impressive stats in NFL history. But much like his complaint about the NFL draft process, there’s more to his success on the field than the numbers show. He’s competitive, loyal, smart, and diverse. Maybe we can credit his ability to maintain balance in his life to how much the Green Bay quarterback has managed to achieve in a decade.
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