On his drive home from practice, Rodgers reflects on
when he entered the league and what the QB species looked
like then. He pulled what he could from his favorite non-
conformists like Steve Young and Randall Cunningham,
players who, he says, “bucked the system.”
Survival, to Rodgers, meant being completely unafraid
to experiment with all he knew. Now, he says it’s surreal to
see “things I’ve been a part of that have gone around the
league; things I came up with at my house, a thought in
the middle of the night, are now concepts in every offense.”
Around him, life found a way.
“I was one of the outliers,” Rodgers says. “Now, it’s
totally f lipped.”DECEMBER 2021 47This once exceptional mechanical tweak was almost
commonplace in the wild now. Hewlett smiled as he
watched Williams, the first true freshman to start for
Oklahoma in three decades, break out a pair of Foot Pops
during a stunning 52–31 debut victory over TCU in mid-
October, when the 18-year-old threw for four touchdowns.
Quarterback trainers can point you to their favorite
YouTube compilations of freckle-faced preteens launch-
ing 30-yard, tight-spiraled bombs, despite barely being
able to sustain the weight of the helmet resting on their
tiny shoulders. Instagram is littered with slow-motion
Foot Pops, as omnipresent among the high school football
social media crowd as any TikTok dance.IT’S SURREAL, RODGERS SAYS, TO SEE “THINGS I CAME UP WITH AT
MY HOUSE, A THOUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, ARE NOW CONCEPTS
IN EVERY OFFENSE. I WAS ONE OF THE OUTLIERS.ER
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