Aaron Rodgers has been in the league for a long time. Two decades to be exact.
The 40-year-old was drafted in 2005 by the Green Bay Packers, who were led by Brett Favre at the time. As he enters his 20th year in the NFL, let’s put in perspective just how long that timespan is by looking back at the world the year he was drafted.
The top songs of 2005 were “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey and “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Madagascar were two of the top movies, “Desperate Housewives” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” were two of the top television shows, gas was $2.34 a gallon, New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams was just seven years old.
Now Williams is Rodgers’ teammate and was very surprised to learn how long the quarterback has been in the league. Williams has finished elementary school, gone to middle and high school, then college, was drafted in the league and has played five years in the NFL in the time since Rodgers was drafted.
When a member of the media mentioned how long Rodgers has been playing, Williams couldn’t hide the shock.
“Twenty years? I ain’t know that,” he said. ” … Man, isn’t our running back, No. 0, 20 years old? So he’s been in the NFL as long as he’s been alive. That’s crazy, huh? I gotta joke with him about that.”
He was referring to Braelon Allen, the Jets fourth-round draft pick, who was just months old when Rodgers was drafted. There are many players who were very young when Rodgers was drafted, including 2024 first-round pick Olu Fashanu (21 years old) and running back Breece Hall (22 years old).
The closest players to Rodgers in terms of age are punter Thomas Morstead (38 years old) and kicker Greg Zuerlein (36 years old).
