At this writing, the ESPN NFL Countdown crew is rolling out its 4-hour analysis of Super Bowl XLV. Within the first 5 minutes, it was determined that, if Green Bay is to win today, No. 12 is going to have to take care of business.
Don’t take my word for it. Analyst Tom Jackson just said, “For Green Bay to win, No. 12 has to take care of business.”
That’s Aaron Rodgers, of course, star quarterback for the Packers. The team’s leading businessman. Aaron Charles Rodgers, the team's galvanizing field general (as the voice of the late John Facenda resonates in my head), is a native of Chico, Calif.
Likely, that means nothing to you. But there is a bond here, as I also am from Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood. My family is originally from Idaho, but I also grew up in Chico. Or, as I like to say, I got older in Chico. The thread that ties us is Pleasant Valley High School, Rodgers’ alma mater. I also attended PV, “Where the mountains meet the valley, rising proudly into view, wave the Vikings’ flying colors, Pleasant Valley’s white and blue.”
I think that is a segment of the school song, which was painted across a wall in the school's auxiliary gymnasium. During basketball practice, we had to run “liners” once for not remembering the words. I would have to run liners today, probably.
It’s strange, today, to be reminiscing about high school on Super Bowl Sunday in Las Vegas. Even writing the letters “P” and “V” consecutively gives me something of a chill. And I don’t profess to have ever met or have any insight to Rodgers as a person or athlete. I didn’t cover him as an athlete in Chico — I was long gone by the time he played football for the mighty Vikings.
I can tell you that, on the day Rodgers was born, Dec. 3, 1983, I was a senior at PV. It was a Saturday, and I’m thinking on the Friday prior, we played a basketball game against some hated rival in the Eastern Athletic League, like Paradise or Lassen of Susanville.
But to share an alma mater with a Super Bowl quarterback means that, by instinct, you yearn for his success. I'm emotionally invested in the outcome of each Aaron Rodgers game, so I can boast that, “I went to the same high school as Aaron Rodgers.” I’ve been saying this for weeks, and also punching it into Twitter updates.
Even last week, when I interviewed lifelong Packers fan and Milwaukee native Anthony Crivello of Phantom — Las Vegas Spectacular, I theatrically remarked, “Have I mentioned I attended the same high school as Aaron Rodgers?”
No shame.
We’ve nothing much in common, Rodgers and I, other than understanding what it’s like to roam the open-air halls of the school set on East Avenue, which long ago was “the boonies,” but is surrounded by a burgeoning community today. I’m sure he’s made countless noontime dashes to La Comida Mexican restaurant, where (I expect) the Super Burrito is still more than ample nourishment to fuel a teenager for the afternoon. He’s spent lazy summer days at One Mile and Five Mile Recreation Areas in Bidwell Park and slapped away mosquitoes at tree-shrouded Hooker Oak Park.
Chico has grown, over the decades, but it has always been a small town. Many stuck around, and I love the fun photos on Facebook of my old friends kicking it up at old haunts like the Graduate and Scotty's Boat Landing. Some of us left, carried away on career paths to such dissimilar cities as Las Vegas. Rodgers went on to play a season at Butte College, a compound set amid the tweeds several miles outside Chico. Then he grew into a top-tier quarterback at Cal, where I believe many PV alumni began taking notice of his budding athletic stardom.
When Rodgers was drafted by the Packers later than expected, 24th overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, I recalled thinking that he’d probably be a good but not great pro, destined to languish behind Brett Favre for several years before throwing a pass of relevance.
Now he’s in the Super Bowl. The PV kid, now likely to forever serve as the school’s most famous alum. No, I don’t know him. But, somehow, I feel as if I do. There is a familiarity in the way his eyes dance, that quick and devilish smile. People from Chico know how to have fun, trust me on that. If the town I so warmly remember had a face, it would be Rodgers’.
If he wins today, expect some permanent and public visage to be stretched across the PV campus. Maybe a banner, “Alma Mater of Super Bowl Champion Aaron Rodgers.” He will have won as many Super Bowls as the revered Favre.
If Rodgers loses, he’s still one of the game’s greats. And only 27.
But I’ve made my call for Super Bowl XLV.
I’m betting on the Viking.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
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