“I Was Tiny”: Aaron Rodgers Opens Up About His Tough Freshman Year in Netflix Docuseries

Throughout much of his NFL career, Aaron Rodgers has been the best quarterback on the field. However, back in his earliest playing days, he wasn’t the best signal-caller on his own team.

Rodgers reflected on his humbling start during episode one of his Netflix docuseries, Aaron Rodgers: Enigma. In the program, Rodgers detailed how he started his football life when he was smaller in stature. Moments later, he discussed the mentors he had that helped him persevere through his opening season.

“When I got to high school, I wasn’t very good freshman year. I was tiny. I was like 5-foot-6, 130 lbs. or something… so that wasn’t a great year for me. But there was a few really, really important people that influenced me… quarterback Danny Mehan, he was like a big brother to me in high school.”

Netflix interviewed Mehan for the docuseries. He revealed Rodgers’ practice and training habits were extremely intense from the very beginning. He attributed Rodgers’ NFL greatness to that work ethic and his personal motivation.

“We used to stick around after practice and learn some of the reads, some of the routes together… I would consider myself lazy compared to him. He was doing ladder drills, biometrics and box jumps. He just had that drive inside of him. [There] wasn’t someone fueling him to do it. It was him.”

Rodgers’ former coach, Sterling Jackson, echoed Mehan’s comments.

“You could see that he was very focused, very talented in his footwork… and passionate about football. So he took into himself to increase his strength, increase his fitness, increase his mentality.”

Despite posting impressive numbers when his time came, Rodgers did not receive any Division One scholarship offers. Jackson said people didn’t “want to pull the trigger on an unknown, small town, Northern California kid.” This led Rodgers to go the junior college route before eventually transferring to the California Golden Bears.

Once there, Rodgers was able to prove himself on a bigger stage. The Green Bay Packers eventually pulled the trigger on him in the 2005 NFL Draft. Now, Rodgers is set to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. And, better yet, he’ll never be overlooked again.