50 Fun Facts About Aaron Rodgers

Which star receiver, Rodgers's favourite target in Green Bay, was reunited with him by a 2024 trade from the Raiders?

Davante Adams. His new team gave up a conditional third-round pick to reunite a pair who had already connected for more than 60 touchdowns in eight seasons together.

Which quarterback did the 49ers take first overall instead of Rodgers in 2005?

Alex Smith. Rodgers had grown up a 49ers fan and expected to go first, but San Francisco preferred the Utah quarterback and left him waiting for hours until the 24th pick.

Which legendary quarterback did Rodgers back up for his first three NFL seasons?

Brett Favre. He announced his retirement in March 2008, changed his mind that summer and was traded away, which finally made Rodgers the starter after three years of waiting.

In which city was Rodgers born?

Chico. The family moved away to Ukiah and then Oregon while he was a boy, but came back in 1997, and Rodgers became the starting quarterback at the town's Pleasant Valley High School.

Rodgers played his freshman college season at which junior college?

Butte. With no major college wanting him, he spent one season at the community college near home and led it to a 10-1 record and a No. 2 national ranking, which finally got him noticed.

In 2004 Rodgers tied an NCAA record by completing 23 straight passes in a narrow loss to which top-ranked team?

USC. Rodgers drove his team to first-and-goal with under two minutes left, but four plays failed and the Trojans held on 23-17, the only defeat of that regular season.

Which Cal head coach discovered Rodgers at junior college?

Jeff Tedford. He was watching film of a tight end he wanted to recruit, asked his staff who the quarterback was, and was surprised that no major program had gone after him.

Rodgers won his first start for Cal against which Midwestern school, which had declined to offer him a scholarship?

Illinois. Rodgers had gone to its team camp hoping for an offer and got only the chance to walk on, so in 2003 he made his first start for Cal against it and won 31-24.

Which team did Rodgers beat in Super Bowl XLV, earning the game's MVP award?

Steelers. Rodgers threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the 31-25 win, and fourteen years later he signed to play for the team he had beaten.

Rodgers's four NFL MVP awards are second only to the five won by which quarterback?

Peyton Manning. Rodgers won in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021, and collected the last of them for the same season in which the league fined him for breaking its COVID-19 rules.

Rodgers's 2011 season set an NFL single-season record in which statistic?

Passer rating. He finished at 122.5 even though he was rested for the final game, when his backup Matt Flynn stepped in and threw six touchdown passes in his place.

How did the 2011 Packers' 15-1 season come to an end?

A home loss in their first playoff game. The New York Giants won 37-20 at Lambeau Field, a year after Green Bay's title, and went on to win the Super Bowl themselves.

Which team ended the Packers' 19-game winning streak in December 2011?

Kansas City Chiefs. They were 5-8 and had fired their head coach six days earlier, yet under interim boss Romeo Crennel they won 19-14 to end Green Bay's hopes of a perfect season.

Before TV ads renamed it the Discount Double Check, what did Rodgers and his teammates call his touchdown celebration?

The Championship Belt. After a score Rodgers mimes fastening an invisible title belt around his waist, and he was still doing it in 2021, moments before a famous outburst at a rival crowd.

Which insurance company made Rodgers a long-time commercial spokesman?

State Farm. Its 'Discount Double Check' ads borrowed his touchdown routine, and later spots had Jake from State Farm offering him a special 'Rodgers Rate'.

After a 1-2 start in 2014, Rodgers told fans to do what, spelling it out letter by letter?

R-E-L-A-X. 'We're going to be OK,' he added, and the Packers bore him out by winning 11 of their last 13 games while he collected his second MVP award.

In 2016, with the Packers at 4-6, Rodgers predicted they could do what?

Run the table. The Packers had just lost four in a row, yet they won their last six games to take the division and then two playoff games to reach the NFC title game.

Who caught the 61-yard Hail Mary known as the "Miracle in Motown" in 2015?

Richard Rodgers. The tight end caught it in the end zone on an untimed down, awarded only because a Lions defender had grabbed the quarterback's face mask on what should have been the last play.

Against which team did Rodgers throw six touchdown passes in the first half in 2014?

Chicago Bears. Green Bay led 42-0 at half-time, so by the middle of the third quarter Rodgers was done for the night, keeping warm by the sideline heaters on the way to a 55-14 win.

Rodgers's 402 straight passes without an interception in 2018 broke the NFL record of which quarterback?

Tom Brady. Brady's streak had ended at 358; Rodgers ran his to 402 before safety Eddie Jackson finally picked him off in Week 15.

Rodgers's sideline throw to Jared Cook set up the field goal that beat which top seed in January 2017?

Dallas Cowboys. On third-and-20 with 12 seconds left and the score tied at 31, Cook dragged his toes inbounds, and Mason Crosby's 51-yard kick won it as time expired.

Which receiver caught Rodgers' career-long 93-yard touchdown pass in 2011?

Jordy Nelson. It came against the Rams, and the pair went on to share 65 touchdowns, a Packers record until Rodgers broke it himself with another receiver ten years later.

Which head coach put Rodgers through a six-hour-a-day "quarterback school" in 2006?

Mike McCarthy. The new coach also ordered him to cut his body fat, and Rodgers admits they butted heads that first year; two decades later the pair were reunited at a new team.

Rodgers won the 2025 AFC North title on the final night of the season by beating which rival 26-24?

Baltimore Ravens. Rodgers, 42, threw the go-ahead touchdown with 55 seconds left, and the title was safe only when Baltimore's kicker missed from 44 yards as time ran out.

A rumored 2007 trade would have sent Rodgers to the Raiders for which receiver?

Randy Moss. Green Bay's general manager insisted a swap had never been discussed, and weeks later Oakland sent Moss to New England for a fourth-round pick instead.

Rodgers' first playoff game, a 51-45 overtime loss in January 2010, was against whom?

Arizona Cardinals. Rodgers threw for 423 yards and four touchdowns to wipe out a 21-point deficit, only to be stripped of the ball in overtime, and Karlos Dansby ran the fumble in to win it.

Rodgers lost a 2012 bet with which R&B group and had to wear a 49ers jersey at practice?

Boyz II Men. Rodgers, a friend of the group, agreed to wear the rival quarterback's jersey for a week if San Francisco won the 2012 opener, and the 49ers did, 30-22.

Which NBA team did Rodgers buy a limited stake in, in 2018?

Milwaukee Bucks. The deal was announced while Rodgers sat courtside at a playoff game against Boston, and three years later the team he had bought into were NBA champions.

Rodgers guest-hosted which game show for two weeks in April 2021?

Jeopardy. He had already won the celebrity edition of the quiz in 2015, beating the investor Kevin O'Leary and the astronaut Mark Kelly.

Which actress confirmed in 2021 that she was engaged to Rodgers?

Shailene Woodley. She broke the news on The Tonight Show, laughing that she had never expected to be engaged to 'someone who throws balls for a living'.

Rodgers's 2025 season ended with a 30-6 home defeat in the wild-card round to which team?

Houston Texans. Their defence ran back both a Rodgers fumble and a Rodgers interception for touchdowns, sealing the first road playoff win in the franchise's history.

Rodgers's first season with the Jets ended four snaps into his debut when he tore what?

Achilles tendon. Buffalo's Leonard Floyd sacked him on a Monday night, yet the Jets still won 22-16 in overtime behind backup Zach Wilson and dedicated the victory to him.

Which Jets legend offered to let Rodgers wear his retired number 12 jersey?

Joe Namath. Rodgers thanked him but turned the offer down, saying 'To me, No. 12 is Broadway Joe', and went back to the number he had worn in college.

Rodgers threw his 500th career touchdown pass on the final day of the 2024 season in a win over which team?

Miami Dolphins. No. 500 went to tight end Tyler Conklin, and Rodgers left the field unsure whether he would play again; his team released him two months later.

In 2025 Rodgers won the first NFL regular-season game ever played in which country?

Ireland. At Dublin's Croke Park he threw an 80-yard touchdown pass in a 24-21 defeat of Minnesota, his first win in a game played outside the United States.

Rodgers threw four touchdown passes in his Steelers debut in September 2025, a 34-32 win over which team?

New York Jets. The team that had released him six months earlier watched him play without a turnover, and a 60-yard field goal in the final minutes settled it.

On which talk show did Rodgers say in June 2025 he was 'pretty sure' the coming season was his last?

The Pat McAfee Show. Rodgers had been a regular guest for years, and this forecast proved wrong: after his team changed head coach he signed on to play in 2026 as well.

Rodgers' throw to whom in September 2025 moved him to fourth in career touchdown passes?

D.K. Metcalf. The 12-yard score at New England was career touchdown pass No. 509, and Rodgers went on to win the game with another scoring throw in the final minutes.

Rodgers kept number 8 in 2025 because his old number 12 is unofficially retired for which Steelers great?

Terry Bradshaw. The four-time Super Bowl winner had called the team's pursuit of Rodgers 'a joke', and Rodgers replied that he would love to get to know him better.

On fourth down in the final minute of the 2013 season finale, Rodgers's 48-yard touchdown pass to whom won the division?

Randall Cobb. Both men were playing their first game back after about two months out injured, and the catch sent the Packers into the playoffs as division champions.

Which golf tournament's amateur team title did Rodgers win in 2023?

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Rodgers and his professional partner Ben Silverman finished 26 under par after bad weather wiped out the final round, and his 10 handicap was questioned all week.

Rodgers made a cameo in a 2019 episode of which HBO fantasy series?

Game of Thrones. He appeared uncredited as a citizen of King's Landing in 'The Bells', the second-to-last episode of the whole series, in which the city is destroyed.

Rodgers's 2017 season was wrecked when a hit by Minnesota's Anthony Barr broke his what?

Collarbone. He told Conan O'Brien that surgeons had put 13 screws in it, then hinted he might have been exaggerating, and he came back for just one game that December.

Which sports star was Rodgers's girlfriend when his stake in an NBA team was announced in 2018?

Danica Patrick. The racing driver sat courtside beside him at the playoff game where the deal was made public, and he was introduced to the crowd during the game.

Rodgers's younger brother Jordan, a former Vanderbilt quarterback, found fame on which reality show in 2016?

The Bachelorette. Jordan was one of 26 men competing for JoJo Fletcher, and he won: she gave him her final rose and accepted his proposal.

Rodgers revealed in 2022 that he had travelled to which country to take ayahuasca?

Peru. He went in 2020, before the third of his MVP seasons, and said the retreat helped pave the way for it; the NFL later confirmed the brew broke none of its drug rules.

Which head coach took over the Packers for Rodgers' 2019 season?

Matt LaFleur. With him in charge the Packers won 13 games in each of the next three seasons, and Rodgers was named MVP in two of them.

Which team beat Rodgers's top-seeded Packers 31-26 at Lambeau Field in the NFC title game of January 2021?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Trailing by eight late on, Green Bay chose to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal instead of going for the tying score, and Rodgers, sacked five times, lost a fourth straight NFC title game.

Asked in 2021 whether he was vaccinated against COVID-19, Rodgers replied that he had been what?

Immunized. He had not in fact been vaccinated, and after he tested positive that November the NFL fined him $14,650 and the Packers $300,000 for breaking its protocols.

What did Rodgers yell at the Chicago crowd after a touchdown run in 2021?

I still own you. Rodgers said a fan in the front row had made an obscene gesture at him and he 'blacked out, in a good way'; the win was his 22nd in 27 starts against that opponent.