Aaron Rodgers Returns to the Bay Area: From Ping Pong to Stardom

Aaron Rodgers slipped into the same routine whenever he flew out of the Bay Area: find Richard Schwartz and turn up the volume. The two quarterbacks met at Cal in 2003 and competed for the same starting spot. They became close. 

‘We’d sit next to each other on the plane to away games,’ Schwartz says. ‘Back then, we didn’t have iPods or iPads or anything like that. We had CD players… and we would swap headphones.’

The quarterbacks each had their own favorites. ‘He loved country music and 80s or 90s greatest hits,’ Schwartz remembers. Oh, and the music put together by his teammate’s girlfriend.

‘She would make me a CD playlist of the early 2000s boy bands – Backstreet Boys, all that stuff,’ says Schwartz, who now works in real estate. ‘Aaron would love listening to the CD she made me. It was so funny. He’d be like: “Oh, let me have your headphones!”

Schwartz transferred out after a few months but Rodgers spent two seasons at the University of California, Berkeley, forging a college career that catapulted him towards superstardom.

On Sunday, the 40-year-old hopped on another flight to yet another away game. Two decades after leaving Cal, he returns to the Bay to begin his 20th season in the NFL.

Rodgers heads into the Jets’ opener against the 49ers as one of the most decorated, most polarizing quarterbacks in history. A quarterback synonymous with conspiracy theories, controversy and alternative medicines.

A quarterback whose public image jars with the memories of former teammates. They played alongside the Rodgers that entered the NFL and those bonds were forged over ping pong and poker and video games and broken arms – and a Joe Montana shirt that barely reached his belly button.

’He’s obviously misunderstood. I know him, and I know his heart. The dude has a heart of gold,’ says Rodgers’ leading receiver at Cal, Geoff McArthur. ‘He was the best teammate that I’ve ever had.’

Rodgers always challenged those around him. More recently he has challenged conventional beliefs, too. For former Cal fullback Chris Manderino, that’s not so different from Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Even Muhammad Ali.

‘Sometimes it requires you to be a little bit of an a**hole,’ Manderino says. ‘It’s not about being friends with everybody.’

But in 2004, Rodgers led Cal to one of the school’s most ‘special’ seasons in recent decades.

This November, the quarterback is set for a reunion and a trip down memory lane. First up, though? The 49ers.

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McArthur carries a permanent reminder of Rodgers. Six of them, in fact. They are buried beneath his skin and they have been there for 20 years. ‘We’re entangled… forever,’ the wide receiver says. 

Rodgers broke McArthur’s arm. The receiver’s crime? He tried to catch a pass. ‘The ball’s force is what broke my arm,’ McArthur recalls. ‘I have six screws and a plate till this day.’

The quarterback entered the NFL draft following the 2004 season, when the Golden Bears went 10-2 and Rodgers made NCAA history.

‘I’ll never forget that USC game, when he had 23 consecutive completions,’ McArthur says. Suddenly, it all clicked. ‘All the hype, everything made complete sense at that moment.’

Others realized rather sooner. To Schwartz, Rodgers’ gifts and work ethic were obvious almost instantly. ‘The first couple of weeks I saw him throw the ball,’ he says. Schwartz called his mom and she asked after the new kid. ‘He’s just different,’ Schwartz told her.

But mom remained upbeat ‘You’ll be fine,’ she insisted. Rodgers had, after all, been ignored by Division 1 teams out of high school. He considered quitting football altogether and was only spotted by Cal as coaches scouted tight end Garrett Cross. Even after leaving college, he was overlooked by the 49ers in the NFL draft. 

‘From those early days, Aaron always played with a chip on his shoulder,’ Manderino says. ‘He was out to prove something.’ That has never gone away, the former fullback believes. Thankfully, Rodgers backed it up.

At Cal, quarterbacks were given a computer and every Sunday they were loaded with data on their next opponent.

‘It would take me until Wednesday or Thursday to actually learn (it),’ Schwartz recalls. Rodgers would have processed it all by Monday night. ‘He was literally a savant.’

Schwartz recalls one particular game, when Rodgers changed the play call before throwing a long touchdown pass. Teammates and coaches were baffled. 

But Rodgers later explained: ‘I’ve watched so much film on their free safety that I picked up if he had his left foot in front of his right foot, 70 percent of the time he went from a cover two to a cover three.’

In simple terms: the defenders would rotate, leaving the original play in ruins. So he took a chance. ‘We’re 20 year old kids,’ Schwartz says. ‘Once he did that,’ I was like: “F***”

Rodgers was a reserved guy back then. He didn’t party much. He was, however, always happy to teach McArthur a lesson at ping pong, pool or video games.

‘I never beat this dude in anything,’ McArthur, now a high school coach, says. ‘He’s ultra competitive… you’re going to be friendly and cool, and all of a sudden you’re getting your a** whipped.’

Rodgers was especially cruel during ping pong. ‘A complete strategist,’ McArthur says. ‘He studied you while he was running you around. And then he would just exploit your weakness.’

Manderino spent many nights across the poker table from the quarterback. They played for pride or pocket change – $20 or $40 – and Rodgers was handy at bluffing. Thankfully, though, luck plays its part. So? ‘Every once in a while we’d get our chance to take him down. So that felt good,’ Manderino says.

It would leave Rodgers ‘really p***** off’ and ready to talk trash.

None of that masked how the quarterback really felt, however. None of it prevented him from being a fine teammate and leader.

‘He just cared,’ McAarthur says. ‘He cared about us individually, outside of football.’ The quarterback had nicknames for all his teammates and he has kept in touch with some.

’He was very, very, concerned about my cancer diagnosis,’ says McArthur, who has been hit twice in two years.

The quarterback lent his help – not that it proved anything. ‘I know how he feels about me… he’s a loving, compassionate, empathetic person.’

He remains a terrific competitor on the field, too. Rodgers will battle the 49ers almost a year after he tore his Achilles – and two decades after they snubbed him. San Francisco was always close to the quarterback’s heart.

‘He wore an old school undershirt under his pads… this old, gray, beat-up Joe Montana shirt,’ Schwartz recalls.

‘It only went up to his belly button but he wore it every single game.’ It stank. But it was his good luck charm. Beyond that, Rodgers’ methods were rather more conventional back then. No ayahuasca or darkness retreats.

‘I think it took a while for him to grow into accepting that it’s okay to be you,’ McArthur says.

On Monday night, the 40-year-old will begin a pursuit of a second Super Bowl. Later this season, the Jets have a bye week and there are plans for the class of 2004 to gather for a Cal game.

Rodgers has ‘reinvigorated’ the possible reunion of the team that put him on a long and winding path to Santa Clara.

‘It’s one of those friendships,’ McArthur says. ‘Twenty years could pass and when we see each other, it feels just like it was. Like we were just at the stadium.’