Aaron Rodgers was born December 2 in Chico, California. He played high school football at Pleasant Valley High School in Chico and started his Junior and Senior years. While at Pleasant Valley, he set the single game TD record with 6 TDs in a game and also set the single season passing yards records with 2,466 his Senior year.
Despite throwing for a total of 4,421 yards during his Junior and Senior years, he was not heavily recruited by D1 schools so he decided to play football at Butte Community College, a local junior college. During his freshman years at Butte CC, Aaron Rodgers threw for 28 TDs while leading Butte CC to a 10-1 record and a #2 national ranking among community colleges. His performance was enough to attract the interest of California head coach Jeff Tedford. Since Rodgers had strong academics coming out of high school, he was able to transfer after one year at Butte CC and went to University of California, Berkeley for his sophomore year.
While at California, Aaron Rodgers started most of his sophomore and junior years and set a school record for lowest percentage of interceptions at 1.43%. As a Junior, Aaron Rodgers led the Bears to a 10-1 record and a top 5 national ranking at the end of the regular season. After the Bears lost to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl, 45-31, Aaron Rodgers decided to forgo his senior season and entered the 2005 NFL Draft.
In the 2005 NFL Draft, Aaron Rodgers was predicted to be selected early, however, he dropped to the 24th pick in the first round. In one of the best bargains ever in the NFL Draft, Green Bay selected Rodgers with the 24th pick. Much was made about the Packers pick and about Aaron Rodgers during the draft. Many thought it was a wasted pick to use a first rounder for a back-up. But, the Packers selected Aaron Rodgers as the heir apparent for the aging Brett Favre and wanted him to be the team's starter in 1-2 seasons. However, with the multiple "un-retiring" stunts by Brett Favre, Rodgers did not finally become the team's starter until 2008-09 season.
During his first three years as the starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers showed considerable improvement across all QB categories. And since midway through the 2010-2011 season, there has been no better QB in the NFL. During the Packers run to the Super Bowl Championship, Aaron Rodgers was incredible despite playing against the league's best defenses. Rodgers completed 68.2% of his passes, averaged 273 yards per game, threw for 9 TDs and only 2 interceptions. He finished with a post-season QB Rating of 109.8%.
So far during the 2011-2012 season, Aaron Rodgers has actually increased his performance to impossibly high levels. Over 15 games, he has a QB rating of 122.5% (crazy high level), he has completed 68.3% of his passes, thrown 45 TDs and only 6 interceptions, while averaging 309 yards per game. Wow, if that performance continues it could go down as the best season-long QB performance in history and it will be difficult of any team to catch the Packers on their way to a second Super Bowl Championship.
Do you think Packers fans miss Brett Favre?
