Excerpts continue to be revealed from the newly-released Aaron Rodgers biography with the latest suggesting
that the talented quarterback had to endure a tough few years while being the back-up quarterback – including an incident that saw him have to buy back his own helmet from a charity sale.
According to Ian O’Conner’s ‘Out of the Darkness – The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers’ biography, one incident saw Rodgers being hazed by his fellow quarterbacks with the Green Bay Packers,
including Hall of Famer Brett Favre – as they had taken his helmet away from him and made players on the team sign it before attempting to sell it off to charity.
When realizing he’d lost his helmet, Rodgers began to ask questions before finding it listed as an item to be sold, with autographs all over it before putting it back on to go out and practice in.
Rodgers, who is said to have had a short fuse to practical jokes when played on him, said to his teammates: “Do you know what the m———— did to me?”
The biography states that Rodgers had enjoyed giving banter out to teammates, but had struggles with taking it throughout his first few years in the league – while being openly frustrated with his playing situation.
After entering the 2005 NFL Draft, Rodgers was seen as the best quarterback available and looked destined to join his hometown San Francisco 49ers as the first overall draft pick. But on the night, the Niners shocked all when they chose to instead select Alex Smith – beginning Rodgers’ fall all the way to the 24th overall selection when the Packers surprisingly selected him.
The Packers had taken Rodgers despite legendary quarterback Favre still at the peak of his powers – throwing for 62 touchdowns the previous two seasons.
But as Favre entered his mid-30’s, the quarterback begun to openly discuss retiring and would be away from the team for months on end, with the organization choosing to select Rodgers as their long-term plan for when he would eventually walk away.
Instead though, Favre continued to play for the team for three further seasons, but would suffer a brutal two years after Rodgers had joined – throwing for 38 touchdowns and a whopping 47 interceptions. Despite his struggles, Rodgers would still be benched for a third year, before current Seattle Seahawks general manager and former Packers executive John Schneider told the team they needed to make a move.
Schneider is said to have told those within the organization: “We got our guy… No more, ‘Is Brett Favre retiring, or is he coming back?’ Aaron is our guy. We’re done with Brett, man. Aaron was awesome yesterday.”
Rodgers went on to win a Super Bowl in his second season as a starter, while going on to cement himself as arguably the most talented quarterbacks the league has ever seen.
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Source: USA Today
