36 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
There, quarterback junkies search for an edge in video
clips, scanning the slow-motion drop-backs, releases and
follow-throughs of the best players in the world, trying to
identify the mechanical quirks that lead to the most stag-
geringly beautiful—and stunningly improbable—throws
we see every Sunday.
So it was that the Aaron Rodgers Foot Pop came to
be known. Some warm-up footage showed the Packers’
quarterback shooting his lead (left) foot in the air for a
split second, then touching it quietly back to Earth just
after releasing the ball. At full speed it looks like a bit of
an Irish step dance; well-timed photographs of Rodgers
in action make it seem as if he is levitating as he passes.
But the Foot Pop is actually a biomechanical adaptation
by Rodgers to, as one quarterbacking expert says, generate
a “buildup of rotational force let out in a quicker timeline
for explosive power.” If that’s too much to digest, then
simply know this: It was something the likes of which
we had never seen, and it unlocked Rodgers’s arm talent
in ways no one could conceive.
The move went against decades of rigid quarterback
instruction demanding that the lead foot be planted securely
to ensure an accurate delivery. The Foot Pop even looks
different from the traditional throwing motion Rodgers
had in 2005, when he entered the NFL. Its effectiveness,
however, allowed Green Bay to include imaginative route
concepts in its playbook that didn’t exist elsewhere, throws
that only Rodgers could make. Study almost any of his
biggest passes over the past seven years, and it starts to
stand out. After a while it’s like watching a magician soONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING
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HIS AIRNESS
Rodgers’s Foot Pop puts him in rarefied air
as a thrower (right) and has preceded many
celebrations with fellow Packers (above).