How Aaron Rodgers earned his hometown’s unconditional love

CHICO, Calif. — Years ago, Dennis Wallen was driving through Marysville, about 40 minutes south of Chico, when he spotted an old, torn up bicycle leaned up against a storefront. An avid fan of “American Pickers,” he’s always on the lookout for undiscovered treasures, especially bikes. The owner had bought this one — an antique 1940 Hawthorne, now enveloped in rust — for $50 years earlier but never really used it. Wallen felt the bike had “good bones” and “special potential” even though, by his estimation, it hadn’t been ridden in 80 years. He had a vision for it, to honor a local hero with its design. So he bought it for $220 and took it home. Then, he went to work.

First, he chipped off bolts that were rusted in place. Then he widened handlebars that were so narrow it was difficult to get off the bike once you’d gotten on — “it was a death trap.” Then he painted it green and yellow and screwed in a Green Pay Backers helmet on top of the back wheel.

“I watched Aaron Rodgers all through his career at Cal,” said Wallen, 64. “I went to Cal games, for two years I watched Cal go 15 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, and then score. I was not used to that. It was amazing. We’re moving the ball, we tied for the Pac-10 championship, that’s how good he was. Then when he went to Green Bay, I went full Green Bay.”

On a recent August morning, Wallen took a short ride down the street and parked it in front of a local bookstore, called The Bookstore, a trip he takes most mornings to catch up with his friend Mike. It’s a store that almost went under in 2021.

Around the corner, there’s a barbecue joint Rodgers used to frequent with his parents, best known for their ribs and brisket. The owner, Scott McLeod, gets choked up when he thinks about the dire state of his restaurant three years ago. “We didn’t know what we were going to do. We were down to the wire where we didn’t know if we were going to make it.”

A few doors down is Naked Lounge, known for its quirky furniture and live music. One of Rodgers’ favorite coffee shops, he once appeared in a music video with a former owner of the shop.

The three businesses share one thing in common: During the COVID-19 pandemic, when things were at their worst, it was Rodgers who stepped in to save them, providing an infusion of money that enabled each to make ends meet.

“He covered our rent, our labor and our electricity for three months” in 2021, McLeod said.

Brandon Squyres, owner of Naked Lounge: “We couldn’t do it without him helping us. We would’ve shut down.”

Rodgers hasn’t been back to his hometown in a long time, yet his fingerprints are all over it.

Before the pandemic, Rodgers had about as high of an approval rating as any professional athlete. His State Farm commercials were often referenced. He cameoed on “The Office,” “Key & Peele” and “Game of Thrones.” He guest-hosted “Jeopardy!”. When the pandemic hit, Rodgers became more outspoken on matters beyond football. He caught heat for a misleading response to a question about whether he’d received the COVID-19 vaccination, saying “yeah, I’ve been immunized,” implying he’d gotten the vaccine even though that wasn’t the case. In “Out of the Darkness”, an unauthorized biography written by journalist Ian O’Connor, Rodgers says he regrets the way he approached that, though the damage was done. He lost sponsorships. He has since publicly embraced conspiracy theories, even bringing them to the realm of sports-talk television. Many NFL fans turned on him. Over the past four years he’s become a lightning rod for criticism. He still is, and he’s leaned into it, the rare high-profile professional athlete willing to speak his mind on just about any topic, consequences be damned.

Ask a resident of Chico what they think about Rodgers’ conspiratorial turn and you won’t get much of an answer. The town would much rather talk about this: Six months before the quarterback called himself “immunized,” he saved the livelihood of hundreds in his hometown. It was another in a series of acts — benefitting schools, benefitting hospitals, benefitting local businesses — to give back to the place where he was raised.

Maybe Rodgers isn’t loved everywhere — but he is in Chico.

“There’s no local Aaron Rodgers backlash, I can tell you that,” said Chico mayor Andrew Coolidge. “He gets a big pass here.”

You may have heard Aaron Rodgers grew up in the Bay Area — he didn’t. Chico is a three-hour drive from San Francisco. When Rodgers was a kid, it was a small farming town featuring a college campus renowned for its party atmosphere. There’s a regional airport, though it’s only meant for private planes. The closest major airport is in Sacramento, and that’s an hour and a half away. It’s not hard to figure out why college coaches weren’t knocking down Rodgers’ door to recruit him when he was starring at Pleasant Valley High: It took a lot of effort to get there.

The drive from Sacramento to Chico goes mostly along Highway 99, the streets lined with agricultural fields and dead grass as far as the eye can see. The outskirts of Chico are full of old-school ranchers and farmers, the city surrounded by orchards best known for their walnuts and almonds (or “am-end,” as it’s pronounced by locals. “They say they’re almonds on the tree until they get knocked off the tree and knock the ‘L’ out of them,” Coolidge said.)

Chico is positioned at the top edge of the Sacramento Valley where, during the summer, temperatures soar past 100 degrees most days, a dry heat. It rained one day in August and the town was aghast. “I think it’s rained in August once in my life,” Coolidge said.

At its core, Chico is a college town, the home of Chico State. On a recent Monday afternoon in August, students played beer pong outside of a fraternity house, remnants of an era when Chico was considered one of the best party schools in the nation — many still brag about getting named the No. 1 party school by “Playboy” in 1987. It’s not quite like that anymore.

The biggest providers of jobs in town come from Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico State, the local hospital and Butte College, where Rodgers played in junior college for a year. In the middle of town is Bidwell Park, one of the biggest municipal parks in the nation, spread over 3,600 acres. It’s not uncommon to spot wild turkey or deer roaming the park, full of hiking trails and places to swim.

Locals call Chico a small town, even though the population has soared past 100,000 in recent years, double what it was when Rodgers still lived here. The displacement of many families as a result of the Paradise Camp Fire in 2018 contributed to the rise.

“We’re a small town that’s built like a city,” said Jolene Francis, who works for Enloe Medical Center. “Everybody knows everybody, it feels that way because I grew up here. It’s the kind of town where people still let them go ahead of you in the grocery store. People watch out for each other, they care about each other.”

Garth Archibald, one of Rodgers’ high school and junior college teammates, called Chico an “open-armed community” that “supports itself and each other. I’m still friends with a lot of people I went to kindergarten with. It’s a small-knit community — and we always have each other’s backs.”

And everybody has an Aaron Rodgers story.

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Francis had a Zoom call with Rodgers scheduled for March 7, 2023 — but just before, Rodgers had to reschedule. For good reason: Rodgers was hosting a Jets contingent of owner Woody Johnson, head coach Robert Saleh, general manager Joe Douglas and others at his house in Malibu. This was the visit that would eventually lead Rodgers to requesting a trade to the Jets, which happened at the end of April.

No matter, Rodgers rescheduled and gave Francis and her team at Enloe more time than they had planned. A scheduled 30-minute conversation ballooned to an hour. Enloe was in the process of seeking out funding for a new cancer center and Rodgers had expressed interest in contributing.

“He was versed in what we were trying to do, he had suggestions and told some stories about people that were important to him that had gone through cancer — and some of the things they could’ve benefited from,” said Mike Wiltermood, the president and CEO of Enloe. “People go through cancer treatment, it’s intense, then they go through remission and where’s the support? He spoke about that at length.”

Suzanne Watroba was on the call to take notes and record everything discussed. Just as they were getting to the end of the conversation, Rodgers called Watroba out by name and said: “You haven’t said anything yet. I’d like to know what’s important to you about working at Enloe.”

As she told a personal story of medical care “I saw him (Rodgers) physically lean into the screen and listen to her tell her story. He was really engaged in that,” Francis said. “It was just remarkable because we’d already gone over time with him. I was thinking he’s got to have places he needs to be, but he was fully engaged in that conversation.”

At the end of the conversation, Francis asked Rodgers for a commitment of funds to help incorporate the supportive services at the cancer center that he was passionate about. It was a quick “yes.”

The donation: $3 million — $1 million for construction, $2 million to fund the supportive services, which help patients while they’re in cancer treatment but aren’t covered by insurance. It includes nutrition education, exercise therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture, counseling and psychiatric care. Francis said it was the largest donation Enloe has ever secured, an important piece of the $17 million they were able to raise for the project, much of it helped by Rodgers’ presence as one of the donors.

“People think someone of his business acumen and his fame is interested in this project then they should pay attention too,” Francis said. “It makes a difference.”

Francis also asked Rodgers if they could name a space in the building after him which he was initially resistant too — he told them prefers to not make himself bigger than the cause he’s supporting. When Francis explained how meaningful it would be to the Chico community to see his name in the space, and how he would help bring other supporters to the program, he relented. The building is currently under construction and scheduled to be finished in December 2025, opening fully in spring of 2026. They’re hoping Rodgers can make the trip for the groundbreaking.

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There are two photos of Rodgers on John Shepherd’s wall. One is of a teenage Rodgers, in a flannel shirt, posing by a tree. The other photo is of a basketball team, huddled around Shepherd. Rodgers is behind him, shorter than everyone, trying to listen to what his coach was saying.

“He was about 5-foot-6, 5-foot-7, skinny, big ears, big feet,” Shepherd said, “but he ran the point for me and there was never a question about who was in control.” Shepherd was Rodgers’ freshman basketball coach and P.E. teacher. Now, he’s the assistant superintendent for the Chico Unified School District.

Shepherd pulled out four thick Pleasant Valley High yearbooks from Rodgers’ years at the school, full of photos and memories of a skinny Rodgers, wearing No. 12. In his senior yearbook, he’s applauded for coaching the senior Powder Puff football team — with Archibald — to a victory over the juniors. He played baseball, and basketball, and was a member of the Jesus Club too. His parents bought out a full page to tell him: “Aaron, you have been a joy to raise. We are all so proud of you and your accomplishments. Never forget that life is a series of choices, so always choose God’s way. All of our love and prayers, and may all your future football dreams come true. Dad, Mom, Lukas and Jordan.”

Shepherd described Rodgers as “one of those kids that could just float in and out of groups and connect with anybody,” he said.

“Oftentimes he’s portrayed as aloof but in retrospect he’s not, he just connects with everybody. He had very deep connections with just a few people, which is what we’re seeing now. His personality is very loyal. It didn’t matter if you were a football player, chess team, golfer… I think that’s why so many staff are so appreciative of him even now. When the book (“Out of the Darkness”) came out, our staff has been posting photos to Facebook because they’re so proud to be connected to him.”

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Mark Cooley took over as the Pleasant Valley varsity football coach in 2012, so he never crossed paths with Rodgers, who played there from 1998-2001. But Rodgers was still keeping a close eye on his old school. In 2013, Cooley was chatting with Rodgers’ father and mentioned in passing that the Vikings were dealing with a helmet shortage. Out of the blue a few days later, Rodgers sent Cooley a text message: “Hey, I heard you need some helmets and stuff. I’m here for you. Whatever you guys need, let me know.”

“I was floored,” Cooley said.

The giving didn’t stop there. In 2016, he paid for transportation to Long Beach — eight hours away — for Cooley’s first championship run at PV. He sent Cooley a video to show the team, which Cooley still has saved on his phone. When he projected the video onto a television for his team to see, the kids would go silent — in awe that Rodgers cared enough to send it. He’s sent similar videos as the Vikings have gone on title runs over the years, and each time they won Rodgers paid for championship rings for the entire roster and coaching staff.

“I think that’s the one thing nobody knows, because he doesn’t put himself out there about what he’s done,” Cooley said. “There’s times he told me, ‘Do not tell anybody we did this,’ so there’s some things I’ll keep close to my vest. But for (people who criticize him) if you only knew the guy that I know, you would see him in a completely different light. When people are bad-mouthing him if it’s in my presence, I’m going to step up and say something because — you just don’t know him.”

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Mike Wear bought a bar downtown in 2000, gutted it and turned it into 5th Street Steakhouse, which has become a staple in town and Rodgers’ favorite restaurant in Chico. It’s just down the street from Riley’s, Rodgers’ favorite bar, also co-owned by Wear. Riley’s is the quintessential college bar, the walls lined with photos of drunken students who came through over the years. The bar’s signature drink: Rocket Fuel, which contains raspberry vodka, a splash of cranberry and Red Bull.

As for the restaurant, when Rodgers was in high school, 5th Street Steakhouse only had 18 tables, didn’t do reservations and nothing was computerized. In order to get in, you had to know somebody. When Rodgers was in high school, it was a big deal to have a post-prom meal at the steakhouse, so Wear got him a table.

“I’ve always been a fan of his, even as a kid, so I would take care of him,” Wear said.

Over the years, they became golf buddies and Wear and his friends would occasionally fly out to Green Bay to watch him play for the Packers, usually as Rodgers’ guest. In 2009, Wear expanded the restaurant, added 15 tables and built a private wine room. In 2011, his parents were at the steakhouse before Rodgers was about to face the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game. Wear handed them an envelope with a letter — with a note saying to “kick Jay Cutler’s ass” — and a key to a locker in the wine room with his name on it.

Rodgers loved it. After the Packers won the Super Bowl a few weeks later — by then, the entire town had become Packers fans and celebrated as if they’d forgotten they lived in 49ers country — Rodgers showed up at the restaurant, key in hand.

“It’s funny because no one ever keeps their key,” Wear said.

The locker is still there with eight bottles of wine in it: three Zinfandels, one Syrah and four Cabernet Sauvignons. They’re awaiting Rodgers, whenever he returns.

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Erin Kusie’s parents opened the first Burger Hut in Chico in 1978 and she worked there throughout her childhood. In 1999, Rick, her husband, got involved and they expanded to other locations in 2000. In the early days, Rodgers and his family would frequent the restaurant — and they were beside themselves when, in an ESPN interview early in his Packers career, Rodgers shouted out Burger Hut as the thing he missed most about Chico.

Rick has memories of Rodgers stopping in with Packers teammates. The first time he met Rodgers, before he’d taken over for Brett Favre in Green Bay, the quarterback sat at a table in the corner of the restaurant. Rick asked Rodgers if he’d mind coming to the back and signing a shirt for his manager, which he did. When they came back out into the restaurant, Rick’s two children walked up to him with a piece of paper and asked for his autograph. He signed “Aaron Rodgers, No. 12,” and then the kids said: “Cool! Who do you play for?”

When Covid hit in 2020 and California imposed ever-changing restrictions on in-person dining, Burger Hut struggled. They had to close one of their locations.

“It was devastating,” Erin Kusie said.

Rick Kusie had a “real fear” that they were going to have to close their other locations too. One day Erin was scrolling aimlessly through Facebook and happened upon Barstool Sports, a company she’d never heard of. Barstool was starting a campaign to help small businesses. So they applied and sent in a video, explaining their situation.

One day — the day Rick had just bought his first iPhone — he received a FaceTime call and missed it. The next time he answered it, from their car, and saw Rodgers and Barstool founder Dave Portnoy staring back at them. Rodgers wanted to get involved when he heard Burger Hut had applied for financial assistance through Barstool’s fund.

“I’ve been going to Burger Hut for years,” Rodgers told them. “Every time I come into town I’ve gotta stop by … I’m so excited to be on this call and you guys are such a great business and a staple in our community up there. I’ll say it: You guys are in the fund.”

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In the early days of one of the most destructive wildfires in the history of California, Alexa Benson-Valavanis received a phone call from Rodgers. The Camp Fire started in November 2018 in Paradise, about 15 miles east of Chico, ravaging 153,336 acres over 17 days, demolishing over 18,000 buildings and killing 85 people. More than 50,000 people were forced to evacuate, many of them eventually landing in Chico.

“He called and said: What can I do to help?” said Benson-Valvanis, the president and CEO of the North Valley.

Benson-Valvanis, the president and CEO of the North Valley Community Foundation, had started a fund to raise money but she had “no idea the scale of what that fire was going to be, or the impact.” Benson-Valvanis and her team ventured to figure out who was doing what on the ground in Paradise and where the gaps were in assistance. They spoke at length about the best ways to use his money — he donated $1 million initially — to make the biggest impact. He raised even more money through his guest-hosting gig on “Jeopardy!” and through money earned from proceeds from a celebrity golf tournament. Benson-Valvanis said they raised $74 million in total and brought in “upwards of $3 million” of that with Rodgers’ help.

The money went toward causes like athletic and classroom equipment at area schools, summer programs and field trips, and more broadly an effort to help locals get back to some semblance of normalcy.

“He handles his giving the same way he handles everything, which is: the ultimate professional,” Benson-Valvanis said. “It wasn’t just: Here’s money. We talked directly about the strategies we were going to use to fill gaps so if the government could do it that’s not where we wanted to put the dollars. We wanted to go where we could make the biggest impact, where we weren’t going to duplicate anything but also the suffering was so immense that we just wanted to get the resources out to the families. We had people living in cars really for months and months and months. He was just the type of teammate you would want.”

They communicated often through texts, calls and emails — even though it was in the middle of his Packers season. Rodgers got sponsors and his fans to donate too. “The people who just love and care about Aaron contributed to his fund,” she said. “We’ve been working together ever since.”

Their next big project came in 2021. Inspired by Barstool’s efforts to help small businesses, Rodgers wanted to start his own small business fund, with a focus on his hometown. They called it the Aaron Rodgers Small Business COVID-19 fund. Businesses in town had to apply and make a video, telling their story and explaining their situation amid the pandemic. Rodgers, Benson-Valvanis said, watched most of the videos and was involved in the process for picking the Chico-area businesses that would receive funding.

Eighty small businesses received funding in the first round, and then another 79 in the second round. The total granted in the two rounds was $1.6 million. Benson-Valvanis would get on a call with the business owners, the ruse being that she wanted to discuss their application, and then Rodgers would pop on and tell them they won funding.

For most of them, it was a life-changing call. Julie Kempfen and Jamie Hughes — sisters and owners of Great Harvest Bread Co. in Chico — were days away from closing when they FaceTimed with Rodgers.

“It helped us tremendously,” Kampfen said. “We used it for payroll, primarily, and that was huge. I think it gave hope to our staff because here they were coming to work everyday not sure what the future holds. They knew we were having to think about closing. As business owners you want to always support your staff and our cup was running low. He came in and filled up the cup for us.”

Benson-Valvanis said the calls weren’t just for show either. Rodgers read up on every single business before making those calls.

“The beautiful thing about Aaron, he wanted to be prepped for each meeting, for each interview,” Benson-Valvanis said. “So it’s about more than the money. The money was so significant and if you talk to them many of them will tell you that he helped save their business. Aaron cared enough to make the time and energy to connect with them which, in a really scary time like Covid, I think that went a really long way.”

In July, Rodgers donated $50,000 to NVCF’s Wildfire Relief and Recovery Fund in the wake of a park fire that still hasn’t completely gone away.

“Aaron has continued to show up for pretty much anything catastrophic that’s happened to this community,” Benson-Valvanis said. “And not just with money, with his heart.”

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On Monday night, Rodgers returns to Santa Clara, this time as the quarterback for the New York Jets.

The last time Rodgers played a regular-season game at Levi’s Stadium was in September 2021, with the Packers. He brought 16 of the small business owners and set them up in a suite. Each guest was handed a mimosa upon arrival and the suite was stocked with free food. It was a thrilling game too. The Packers went up 24-14 early in the fourth quarter only to fall behind 28-27 with 37 seconds left. Then, Rodgers went to work: 25-yard completion to Davante Adams, spike, incompletion, 17-yard completion to Adams, spike, and then Mason Crosby converted a 51-yard game-winning field goal as time expired. The Rodgers box went wild.

“The suite next door to us, they peek over and go, ‘Who are you with?’” Kampfen said. “Oh, we’re with Aaron.”

Chico is 49ers country. Rodgers was a diehard 49ers fan growing up, a Joe Montana obsessive — he used to wear a ripped up Montana shirt under his jersey in college. When the 49ers passed on him for Alex Smith in the 2005 NFL Draft, his friends from back home texted him words of encouragement. “It’s all good man, keep your head up,” Archibald recalled saying. “It’s an uncontrollable. Absorb it and find your inner strength. Go prove everybody wrong.”

Twenty years later, Rodgers is a surefire Hall-of-Famer, a four-time MVP pegged to be the savior of the Jets. Over the years, Chico turned from 49ers country into a place full of Packers fans. Riley Andrew, who works at 5th Street Steakhouse, said there used to be a “cement ball” on the outskirts of towns that was painted Green Bay colors. Wallen said if the Jets win a Super Bowl, he’ll add a Jets helmet to his bicycle.

“People just want to support him,” Archibald said. “I never thought I’d be a Packers fan — but man, was I a Packers fan. I’m going to support any team that he’s on.”

Driving in on Highway 99, you are greeted by a “CHICO Welcomes You” sign. There used to be a second message underneath it, gold lettering on a green background: “Home of Aaron Rodgers #12.” Some time in 2012, people noticed the second sign had gone missing. That’s a conspiracy theory for another time (in short, some believe it was stolen by a rival high school as a prank).

Whether the sign, or the man himself, is there in the literal sense, Rodgers is still immensely proud of his Chico roots. For his hometown, the feeling is mutual.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Kara Durrette and George Rose / Getty Images)