By BRENDAN HALL
Super Bowl XLV wasn’t about Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger securing his third Super Bowl Title. It wasn’t about Clay Matthews proving why he deserved the Defensive Player of the Year Award. And it wasn’t about the league or the impending lockout.
The Super Bowl was all about Aaron Rodgers.
Taken 24th in the 2005 NFL Draft, Rodgers came in expecting to be the successor to Green Bay Packers legend Brett Favre. The only question that remained, though, was how long that would take.
What ensued was a roller coaster journey for Rodgers, his career a marionette and Favre the puppeteer. Favre refused to be Rodgers’ mentor and his constant indecision about his retirement left Rodgers waiting on the sideline, wondering when he would finally get his chance.
But Rodgers remained patient, and when his time came, he took advantage. It is impossible knowing what it felt like to succeed Brett Favre and to face the relentless comparisons, but whatever pressure Rodgers felt, he never showed it.
Instead he worked relentlessly, doing everything he could to improve his game and his teammates. His first full season in the league, Rodgers was sixth with a passer rating of 93.8. The 2009 and 2010 season he had ratings of 103.2 and 101.2, fourth and third during those seasons respectively.
This season Rodgers was posed for a breakout year, and minus one game where he suffered a concussion, he was spectacular. Rodgers anchored the leagues 4th-ranked offense and always kept his team in the game. During the regular and postseason, the Green Bay Packers never trailed by more than seven points.
Rodgers continued his success into the postseason. The packers became only the second sixth-seeded team to win the Super Bowl, with Rodgers recording a passer rating of over 110 in 3 of the four games. Rodgers now is third in NFL history with four postseason starts over 110.
With a Super Bowl win, Rodgers has secured his place in the upper echelon of quarterbacks and among the greatest all time, and in only his third full season. Currently, Rodgers is first all time in career regular and postseason passer rating- 98.4 and 112.6- and doesn’t look to give up those titles anytime soon.