It was a decision the 49ers surely regret, and it might have come for a totally nonsensical reason.
San Francisco was looking to take a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft. The choice was between Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers, and then-coach Mike Nolan went with Smith because — wait for it — he saw Smith open a car door for his mother.
“The story that I heard, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, was that Mike Nolan said that when he saw Alex open the car door for his mom, he knew that was the quarterback he wanted,” Rodgers said on Bill Simmons’ new HBO show “Any Given Wednesday.”
Smith was a bust with the 49ers, and only in recent years has resurrected his career with the Chiefs. Rodgers, a northern California product, dropped all the way to No. 24 in that draft.
Rodgers’ time with the Packers has included a Super Bowl title, a Super Bowl MVP and two league MVP awards. Good thing for the Packers he didn’t bring any family (not even a certain younger brother) to his meet-and-greet with the Niners.
“I was at lunch,” Rodgers said. “My mom wasn’t there. My dad wasn’t there.”
Nolan, who went 18-37 as the Niners coach, previously admitted there was no valid football reason for preferring Smith. He told NFL Network recently that Smith was the “safe” pick, while he felt Rodgers was “very cocky, very confident, arrogant.”
“I just laugh at stories like that,” Rodgers said, “because it has nothing to do with being a quarterback.”