(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] And Rodgers is gonna begin to take off
and then fire, and it's caught, touchdown.
- [Announcer] He's in the block, Rodgers throws another one.
(upbeat music)
- 2005 Draft Night we have our board, it's up on the wall.
If people see me on the board,
you know, see me showing the board here.
So first round grades, this is every team.
- Yeah, everybody grades everybody.
- At that time we had maybe 20 players
above a first round line, okay.
We didn't have 32, we had 20.
- 20 people you think were worth the first round pick.
- Worth the first round pick.
24 was our pick, 24.
So two things happened that night.
Number one, everyone we wanted except one player got taken.
We wanted DeMarcus Ware bad, Dallas.
We wanted Marcus Spears bad, Dallas.
We wanted the guy on ESPN, my friend, Pollack, Cincinnati.
We wanted Derrick Johnson, Kansas City.
We wanted Pacman, Tennessee.
So the second thing that happened,
yeah there were issues there.
The second thing that happened was no one was takin'
the quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Now, Gruden had told him he's gonna take him to his face,
Gruden takes Cadillac Williams.
Tennessee we thought, they're taking him,
no, they took Pacman.
Kansas City we thought, no they took Derrick Johnson.
We're comin' up on this and now Gary,
you gotta picture this.
I'm in the middle, we got management, Ted on the left
with Mike, I'm sorry, Mike Sherman not McCarthy,
is over here and all these offensive coaches and stuff
are over here.
We're about to sort of, get up to our spot,
and these offensive coaches are yanking,
and they're like, Andrew we can't do this.
We cannot do this.
- 'Cause we don't need him.
We got Favre in place, we've got other needs.
And who do they want?
- The last thing you want as a coach
is taking a player in the first round
that will not help you.
Not help you this year, not help you next year,
maybe not help you ever.
So they want us to dip into our second round grades
and take offensive line. - Offensive line, a receiver.
- Or even the defensive coaches.
- [Man] Had he been on the board at all?
- Yeah, he's a first round grade.
- He's our only player up there in the first round grade.
- They just never thought they'd ever get him.
Andy, it was 50/50 that he was gonna go number one overall.
Alex Smith went one, and then the whole dominoes happen.
- So now we've got all the management...
- Andrew real quick, real quick,
'cause I like breaking up the stories real quick.
Gut feeling, do you think Aaron Rodgers
has as successful a career if he goes one over all?
- [Andrew] No. - [Gary] You don't.
You do believe, like you knew,
you would think he would be good,
but you do believe that something happened in that hour,
a couple hours, that chip on the shoulder
was a tremendous fuel for more success?
- Yeah, and I think backing up Brett helped.
He hated it, but I think it helped,
rather than being thrown into whatever
was going on in San Francisco.
- So that's not what I'm asking,
'cause that's a different question,
which is a great question.
Which is sitting behind Favre for three years, did it help?
Separate question, chip on shoulder.
- Yeah, I think so 'cause he played that well.
He trades on that and he's good at trading on that.
- Brady does it too, I do it too.
I'm an immigrant, I got Ds and Fs.
- I always told Aaron, Brady's 200 you're 24.
I mean, how many players want to be 24?
- He's like fuck you Andrew, I should've been one.
Fuck Alex Smith, that's what he says.
- Finishing up that story, they say, what do we always say.
Now these GMs are now all GMs,
Reggie McKenzie, John Schneider.
- Take the best player on the board.
- Right. - Doesn't matter.
If the Jets' do that this year,
we don't need more defense Jets, if you're listening.
Go ahead.
- Trust the board.
So here's the story, Ted Thompson says,
"Get him on the phone."
I thought he meant him, meaning the agent Mike Sullivan
who I've known forever.
I call the number, "Hello."
Mike?
Mike's the agent's name.
No, it's Aaron.
Oh my gosh.
Aaron it's Andrew Brandt from the Green Bay Packers.
Can I talk to Mike?
And I felt so bad, and then Aaron's, you know,
Mike's like, are you gonna take him,
are you gonna take him, you take him?
I'm like, hold on.
So my instructions are, fifteen minutes then,
and Aaron's in this room.
The caterer's have packed up everything,
he's been there five hours, the parents.
- [Gary] He's supposed to go one, it's 23,
the camera's in his face all the time.
- [Andrew] They changed the rule after that year.
- That's right, in his face the whole time,
and he's getting more pissed.
The whole world's watching
and you're just slippin' and slippin'.
- So I've gotta keep him there 12 more minutes.
I said, "Keep him on the phone 12 minutes,
"and let's see if that phone rings."
- Because you guys had decided
that if somebody called you...
- Not any offer, but if we got a good offer,
a decent offer, the whole NFL would look different.
That phone, 12 minutes, I'm watching Aaron,
I'm watching Mike talk to me on the phone.
- And guys real quick, for everybody's
who's not a football nerd, at 24,
all those teams in the first round,
that were heavily considering him
but for some reason went elsewhere,
it wouldn't have cost them a fortune,
they could've used a second round pick
and some other collateral, it wouldn't have been...
- I don't know.
Maybe second and third, maybe two twos.
- Two twos, or a second and a third,
to move back into the first round,
take who they wanted at nine, Pacman,
Tennessee coulda had him.
I mean, they had McNair.
I'm trying to remember, it's hard to remember,
but it wasn't like you had the fourth pick
where it's like you're giving up two drafts
to get one guy.
It wasn't hard to go into 24 from the early second round,
have your cake and eat it too,
and take Aaron Fuckin' Rodgers, but nobody called.
- Crickets, crickets.
- And you guys said, fuck it, we'll just take him.
- Two minutes left on the clock, Ted says tell him.
I tell him and we...
- You're like on the phone with him
bullshitting for 10 minutes.
- Yeah, and I'm not saying a word.
I'm not saying a word 'cause I don't want it,
I don't want to hear it.
I'm like Mike, you just gotta hold,
you gotta stay with me here.
Longest 12 minutes of Aaron's life, I'm sure.
- And then what?
You say, Aaron congratulations you're a Green Bay Packer?
- With the 24th selection in the 2005 NFL Draft,
the Green Bay Packers select Aaron Rodgers,
quarterback from California.
- I immediately get a call from Favre, agent.
- Immediately? - Immediately.
Favre talked to the coach.
- Who was that, Bus Cook? - Bus Cook.
And then we have a draft party.
Listen to this, we have a draft party going on
in Lambeau, I don't know, 1,000 people, right below us.
"Boo!"
Oh my God were they booing.
And I'm like, come on guys.
- What was Bus saying, yelling his ass off?
- He's like, "What the fuck's going on?"
- Yeah, why are you doing that?
- Like, what are you doing, replacement, what?
I'm like, just hold on, just hold on.
And I had that conversation over three years.
- You had two parties and you were in the middle.
- Like for three years, Bus at Brett's side is like,
are you just trying to replace us, no.
Aaron's side is, he's never gonna play.
What are you doing? - [Gary] Trade us.
Did they ever really push for trade?
- No, not in those terms.
- [Gary] They alluded to it?
- I heard the phrase, he's never gonna retire, many times.
- They were right, he kinda didn't.
- Well, I mean for years we asked Brett to come back,
and that last year we frankly, didn't.
We didn't say, don't come back,
but we said, it's up to you.
- Yeah, he didn't like the way you phrased it.
- I guess.
Now he retired, a big, teary press conference.
In hindsight, in hindsight, Mark Murphy
or someone should've had the conversation which is,
we think you might want to come back at some point.
You might get that itch and we're letting you know,
we're turning the keys over here.
Because when he did come back I was in that room.
I heard that conversation where
Mike McCarthy said those three words.
We've moved on.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] Rodgers dancing, fires down field,
(mumbling) he's got it, touchdown.
- [Announcer] Wait, Rodgers gets up, floats it,
Cobb, touchdown.
- [Announcer] You reset Starks.
They are gonna bring pressure again.
Rodgers is gonna roll away, throws it up in the air,
says a prayer, and (mumbling), please,
what a catch, that's insane.
(upbeat music)