Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Charles Rodgers (born December 2, 1983) is an American professional football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college ball at California, where he set school records for the lowest interception rates in a single season and over a career. The Green Bay Packers picked him in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft, and he is widely considered one of the all-time greats at his position.

Rodgers spent his first three NFL seasons backing up Brett Favre before taking over as the Packers’ starter in 2008. He led the team to a Super Bowl XLV victory in the 2010 season and was named Super Bowl MVP. The Associated Press named him Athlete of the Year in 2011 and voted him league MVP four times: 2011, 2014, 2020, and 2021. He is the fifth player to win consecutive NFL MVP awards, joining Peyton Manning, Favre, Joe Montana, and Jim Brown.

Rodgers has led the NFL six times in touchdown-to-interception ratio, six times in lowest interception percentage, four times in passer rating, four times in touchdown passing percentage, three times in total touchdowns, twice in touchdown passes, and once each in yards per attempt and completion percentage. In 2023, the Packers traded him to the New York Jets, where he played two seasons. After the Jets released him following the 2024 season, he signed with the Steelers and led them to a division title that year.

Rodgers ranks first on the NFL’s all-time regular-season passer rating list and is among the most efficient quarterbacks ever. He owns a career passer rating above 100—the first to do so—along with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio and the lowest interception percentage in league history. He also had the highest passer rating of any quarterback throughout the entire 2010s. In the postseason, he ranks second in touchdown passes and touchdown-to-interception ratio, fourth in passing yards, and eighth in passer rating. His regular-season numbers include a career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4.34, the second-lowest career interception percentage at 1.4 percent, and the highest single-season passer rating ever at 122.5. He has won the Best NFL Player ESPY Award four times.

Aaron Charles Rodgers was born on December 2, 1983, in Chico, California, to Darla Leigh (née Pittman) and Edward Wesley Rodgers. His father, a Texas-born chiropractor, played offensive line for the Chico State Wildcats from 1973 to 1976. Rodgers has English, Irish, and German ancestry. The family moved to Ukiah, California, where he attended Oak Manor Elementary School.

His father tossed a football with his sons Luke, Aaron, and Jordan, advising them not to drink or party in college so they wouldn’t limit their athletic potential; Aaron took this advice seriously. At age ten, he appeared on the front page of the Ukiah Daily Journal for winning a local basketball free-throw competition. The family later moved to Beaverton, Oregon, where Rodgers attended Vose Elementary School and Whitford Middle School and played baseball in the Raleigh Hills Little League as a shortstop, center fielder, and pitcher.

The Rodgers family returned to Chico in 1997, and Aaron attended Pleasant Valley High School, where he started at quarterback for two years, totaling 4,421 passing yards. He set single-game records of six touchdowns and 440 all-purpose yards, and a single-season school record of 2,466 total yards in 2001. He graduated in spring 2002 with an A− average and an SAT score of 1310.

Despite his strong high school record, Rodgers drew little interest from Division I programs. In a 2011 interview, he attributed this to his small frame—5 feet tall and 165 pounds—during high school. He wanted to play for Bobby Bowden at Florida State but was rejected. The University of Illinois offered only a chance to compete for a scholarship as a walk-on, which he declined. He considered quitting football to play baseball or giving up on professional sports entirely to attend law school. Instead, he was recruited to play at Butte College, a junior college about 15 miles southeast of Chico.

At Butte, Rodgers threw 26 touchdowns as a freshman in the 2002 season, leading the school to a 10–1 record, the NorCal Conference championship, and a No. 2 national ranking. California Golden Bears head coach Jeff Tedford discovered him while recruiting a Butte tight end and was surprised Rodgers hadn’t been recruited earlier. Because of Rodgers’ strong high school academics, he was eligible to transfer to Cal after just one year of junior college.

As a junior college transfer, Rodgers had three years of eligibility at Cal. He became the starting quarterback in the fifth game of the 2003 season, beating Illinois—the only school that had offered him a Division I opportunity out of high school. As a sophomore, he led the Golden Bears to a 7–3 record as a starter. In his second career start, he helped the team to a 21–7 halftime lead over No. 3 USC before being replaced due to injury; the Bears won the game.