The dye is officially No. 5535 on the Pantone Matching System color chart. It’s what gives the heavyweight polyester mesh its dark green hue. But as he stood near his locker for quite possibly the final time, Brandon Jackson knew that far more had seeped into that jersey, that it had absorbed four of the best years of his life Sunday by Sunday, culminating in the Super Bowl XLV championship 48 hours earlier.
It was a remarkable scene at Lambeau Field that afternoon with more than 50,000 devoted people braving subzero wind chills to listen to their heroes thank them for their support, promise a repeat in 2011, and share the love that came with the Packers’ fourth Super Bowl title and 13th overall championship. But to truly understand what this team accomplished with its 31–25 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, 2011, you needed to come in from the cold. Super Bowl MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ speech was great, the players’ victory lap around the stadium while holding out the Vince Lombardi Trophy for front-rowers to touch was wonderful, and general manager Ted Thompson nervously calling it the Lambeau Trophy was charmingly comical. But it was in watching 50 or so grown men jockey for position at the equipment room window—where Tom “T-Bone” Bakken, Gordon “Red” Batty, Tim Odea, and the rest of the equipment staff were handing out their game-worn green jerseys—that the accomplishment became real.
It was in watching Jackson tugging at the edges of the fabric, tracing the outline of the No. 32 twill, and Jarrett Bush’s eyes moistening as he talked about the interception he’d snared while wearing his No. 24. It was in those moments when the reality of what they’d accomplished truly sunk in. “That’s four hard years of dedication, blood, sweat, tears, adversity that goes into that 32,” said Jackson, the undersized running back who toiled as the team’s third-down back without a single complaint even after Ryan Grant’s season-ending ankle injury didn’t lead to the full-time starting gig he’d expected. “The history of the organization goes into that 32. My family, the love, the support goes into that 32. My faith in Christ goes into that 32. There’s a lot of history, there’s a lot of accolades, there’s a lot of things that go into that 32 that’s on that jersey. That jersey will not be washed. It will be hung up, framed with the rest of my jerseys that I have from college, high school. That 32 is very special to me…It’s emotional when I talk about it because I’ve been through a lot here. The road is tough. And to bring home the Lombardi Trophy, to have that patch on the side of my shoulder, it’s amazing.”
Moments earlier, in another part of the expansive locker room, Bush was staring at the captains’ patch embroidered on one side of the collar and the Super Bowl XLV logo heat-transferred on the other. The special teams ace had been through his share of ups and downs during his five years in Green Bay, enduring more than his share of criticism along the way. But as he looked at the No. 24 on his jersey, he rattled off the stains: “Gatorade, dirt, some chicken broth.”
He came to another mark and knew immediately what it was from: the ball from his second-quarter interception. “My heart melted,” he said, bowing his head, tears welling. “Just all the doubters, all the believers who believed. It’s gratifying. Gratifying. To get an opportunity at that time, at that moment in time throughout the whole season, to have it happen at that time, it was special. It meant a lot to me. After the game I broke down. That’s how much I put into this. It’s not just here. I go home, I think about it. I think about the stuff I try to work on. I work on that year-round. I go back home; it doesn’t end here. It’s a job, but you definitely take it home because you take so much pride in it.”
The MVP of Super Bowl XLV, quarterback Aaron Rodgers raises the Lombardi Trophy after throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
The post-Super Bowl jersey giveaway wasn’t the first time Packers players were allowed to keep their jerseys, but according to “T-Bone,” who has been with the team for more than two decades now, it is a rarity. Each jersey is specifically tailored to each player—“You don’t just throw a jersey at them,” Bakken said—for the perfect fit, so they are normally re-used for multiple years.
But after their Super Bowl triumph, each jersey was given to its owner, and each told a story. “I took mine from the game. I didn’t want them to wash it. I wanted to keep it stinky with the holes and the tears and the scuff marks on it,” fullback John Kuhn said. “Just great memories, man. There was a lot of hard work that went into that victory we had on Sunday. We’ve all had our ups and downs this year as an individual and as a team.”
While there were no tears from Rodgers that afternoon, there was an incredible sense of accomplishment, a feeling that came after he’d spent so much of his football life…waiting. Waiting for Division I college recruiters who never called. Waiting in the green room of the Jacob Javits Center in New York City during the 2005 NFL Draft, when he fell from possibly being the No. 1 overall pick to No. 24. Waiting three years behind a waffling legend whose attempt to reclaim his job in the summer of 2008 divided Packer Nation.
As it turned out, it was all worth the wait—for Rodgers and for the Packers. So when Rodgers took to the postgame victory dais after the game alongside coach Mike McCarthy, Thompson, and team president/CEO Mark Murphy to accept the Lombardi Trophy from FOX Sports’ Terry Bradshaw, Rodgers waited patiently off to the side. Then he told those three men what he’d been waiting years to tell them: thank you. “That’s what I did on the podium. I thanked Ted and Mark and Mike really for believing in me and giving me an opportunity,” Rodgers said. “I told Ted back in 2005 [that] he wouldn’t be sorry with this pick. I told him in ’08 that I was going to repay their trust and get us this opportunity.”
And while Rodgers was rewarding Thompson, McCarthy, Murphy, and the team’s passionate fanbase with the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl championship, he didn’t go home empty-handed after completing 24-of-39 passes (numbers skewed by several drops by receivers) for 304 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 111.5.
For his patience Rodgers was rewarded with an uplifting celebratory ride on the shoulders of his teammates, a championship belt from Clay Matthews to commemorate his signature belt celebration, the Super Bowl MVP award, and a place in the hallowed lore of the NFL’s most historic franchise. “I’m very proud of Aaron. He’s a good player, a good teammate,” Thompson said in the locker room later. “I think people are going to write stories about him 10 years from now. He’s pretty special. Even though he’s done so much, he’s still just kind of getting started.”
Rodgers got started fast against the Steelers, but he saved his biggest throws for the fourth quarter. The first came with 13 minutes and 16 seconds left in the game and the Packers clinging to a 21–17 lead. Facing third and 10 from the Steelers’ 40-yard line after Jordy Nelson dropped what would have been a first down and more, Rodgers lined up in the shotgun with Jackson in the backfield and his four remaining wide receivers (with Donald Driver out with a high ankle sprain) spreading the field. He went right back to Nelson, who beat safety Ryan Clark for a 38-yard gain to the Steelers’ 2. Two plays later Rodgers hit Greg Jennings for an eight-yard touchdown and a 28–17 lead. “He played extremely well,” offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said, adding that Rodgers made a protection adjustment on the play just before the snap. “If you’re going to win a championship, you’ve got to make some plays in the fourth quarter when things are tough.”
Rodgers made another such play on the Packers’ next possession after the Steelers pulled within three points on Mike Wallace’s 25-yard touchdown catch and the ensuing two-point conversion. Facing third and 10 from his own 25 with 5:59 to play, Rodgers threw an absolutely picture-perfect ball to Jennings across the middle with the ball sneaking just over the outstretched hand of cornerback Ike Taylor and right in stride to Jennings, who caught the ball at the Green Bay 45 and turned it into a momentum-shifting 31-yard gain. Rodgers then hit James Jones for a 21-yard gain three plays later, and while the Packers settled for a 23-yard Mason Crosby field goal when the drive bogged down inside the 10, the Packers were back in control.
“We put everything on his shoulders,” said McCarthy, whose team set a Super Bowl record by having just 13 rushing attempts—11 by James Starks (for 52 yards) and two kneel-downs by Rodgers (for -2 yards) in the victory formation. “He did a lot at the line of scrimmage against a great defense. He did a hell of a job.”
The defense clinched the win from there, and Rodgers, who received 17.5 of a possible 20 MVP votes, joined Bart Starr (Super Bowls I and II) as the only Packers quarterbacks to win the MVP award in the sport’s greatest game. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: no one person has ever won a game by themselves,” Rodgers said. “This is a team effort and a great group of men, special guys. And I’m just blessed to be one of the leaders on this team. Individually, it’s the top of the mountain in my sport, my profession. It’s what you dream about as a kid.”