Mr. Rodgers has the right stuff to take over Favre's neighborhood
It's fitting that Aaron Rodgers had to wait three years for his chance to quarterback the Green Bay Packers. Look what he went through to get there.
I take you back to the 2005 NFL Draft when Rodgers, then at Cal, and University of Utah quarterback Alex Smith were considered possibilities for San Francisco with the first pick. The 49ers wound up taking Smith, which left everyone else free to take Rodgers.
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| Aaron Rodgers showed he can play when he took over for Favre in Dallas last season. (US Presswire) |
He slipped past Tampa Bay at the fifth spot. Arizona ignored him at the eighth position. New Orleans, Carolina and Oakland -- all of whom needed quarterbacks -- whiffed on him, too.
It wasn't until Green Bay made its choice at the 24th position -- 4 hours and 35 minutes into the draft -- that Rodgers disappeared from the board. When his name was announced, the crowd at New York's Javits Center stood and cheered.
"You'll definitely see a little chip on my shoulder," Rodgers promised afterward.
The Packers can only hope.
The teams that passed on Aaron Rodgers then could be teams on Aaron Rodgers' hit list now, and you better believe he remembers what happened in April, 2005. If he has something to prove it's only to those who thought he wasn't up to quarterbacking them.
And lucky for San Francisco it isn't on this year's schedule.
In the end, though, it might be Aaron Rodgers who was the luckiest for what happened three years ago. So he had to wait three seasons for his turn. He's better off for the experience.
Look, had he gone to San Francisco he would've been nailed to a losing ballclub, suffered as Smith has and not had the opportunity to sit and learn behind one of the game's greatest quarterbacks -- and it's that third point I can't overstate.
I don't know if Steve Young would've been a Hall of Fame quarterback had he not had the chance to sit behind Joe Montana and study one of the game's greats, but I do know it helped to complete him.
Sitting behind Favre did nothing but prepare Rodgers for the step he's about to take, too. I know because I watched him when he was called on in last season's loss to Dallas.
It was a game that would determine which of the two teams would gain the upper hand in the race for home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs, and it was one that was supposed to be decided by Tony Romo or Brett Favre.
Only Favre didn't make it past the second quarter. An elbow injury forced him to the sidelines and forced Rodgers on to the field for the first meaningful performance of his career. Thrust into the spotlight, he didn't disappoint.
Instead, he was the quarterback that Favre was not that evening, completing 18 of 26 passes for one touchdown and no interceptions and coming this close to leading the Packers to a come-from-behind win.
Until then Rodgers had thrown only 31 passes in his career, and the Packers didn't know what they had in their backup quarterback. But they did after Nov. 29. That evening gave Green Bay its first glimpse into its future, and the future looked surprisingly OK.
In short, he was the quarterback the Packers envisioned when they made him their first pick of the 2005 draft. If there were reservations about Life After Brett before, there were none after that performance.
"The Lord has been teaching me a lot about humility and patience," Rodgers said at the 2005 draft, "and He kind of threw both of those in my face today. You hope for the best, and you prepare for the worst.
"Obviously, I would have loved to be the first pick and stay in California, but I want to go to a team that wants me, and (the 49ers) didn't want me and didn't think I was going to help the team out.
"Green Bay does, and I'm excited about being able to work with them and have Brett groom me, and the team groom me for potentially taking over when he's finished."
Well, Favre is finished, and Rodgers' time is now. It's not easy to follow a Hall of Fame quarterback, but Young did it in San Francisco, and the 49ers won another Super Bowl.
Aaron Rodgers doesn't have to be Brett Favre, and he doesn't have to win another Super Bowl. He just has to be the quarterback he was that night in Dallas.
