IRVING, Texas The class is called An Introduction To Coaching As A Career. Its worth three credits, has no prerequisites and, according to the Butte College syllabus, entails 51 hours of lecture time.

But for the schools most famous alum, well, it wasnt about becoming a coach. It was about learning how to be a leader or at least a better one.

He didnt learn any of that from me, Russ Crutchfield, who taught the class in 2002, explained Thursday evening. Crutchfield was talking about the fresh-faced 18-year-old kid who took his class that fall, when he was the new starting quarterback for the Roadrunners football team. That student, of course, was Aaron Rodgers, who now, nine years later will lead the Green Bay Packers into Super Bowl XLV Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. (And who was honored with a green-and-gold clad Aaron Rodgers Day at Butte Thursday.)

I remember specifically one day we were talking in class about motivation, and how coaches need to treat their teams as individuals and how each individual has different buttons. You have to find out what those buttons are, and work them as best you can. I know that was of interest to him. At his position, you have to take 10 other guys and get them to work together.

And that lesson was especially useful to Rodgers given the diversity the roster at Butte, a junior college in Oroville, Calif., near Rodgers hometown of Chico.

As a young 18-year-old, youre trying to be the field general to guys who have kind of been there, done that, Rodgers explained Thursday morning, during the final formal media availability session in advance of Sundays game.

That was the most important year of my young football career. (We had) guys from all over the country and different countries. A guy from Canada, a 25-year-old center, guys who had been to prison, guys who had been bounce-backs from Division I, local guys. Trying to be an 18-year-old and lead those guys and figure out a way to lead them, I learned a lot about leadership and a lot about myself. I still keep in touch with a lot of those guys.

Rodgers hasnt forgotten the lessons he learned, either, and hes been applying them since even before he assumed the starting job following icon Brett Favres awkward departure in August 2008. From getting his fellow scout-teamers to work together in practice during his time Favres backup (the genesis of his championship belt celebration) to holding get-togethers at his house during the offseason (often catered by his favorite Green Bay-area restaurant, Chives) to the way he carries himself in the locker room today (unlike Favre, who for the final five years of his Packers career dressed in an adjacent private staff locker room), everything Rodgers does as a leader is predicated on the idea of bringing different people together for a common goal.

The biggest thing is his leadership skills, wide receiver Greg Jennings replied this week when asked where hes seen Rodgers grow the most since 2008. Hes always been a poised quarterback, a very comfortable guy under center. But I think the biggest jump that we saw from Year 1 to Year 2 was what he did off the field. What he did with guys, bringing guys over and developing those great leadership skills that a great leader possesses. I think its propelled his game to a higher level. Guys bought into him being the quarterback. Even though we already knew that he could get the job done, I think guys understood that, Hey, this guy is something special.

Whatever hes done, its worked. He just needs to continue to be himself.

That was difficult for Rodgers to do given the bizarre circumstances Favres surprise unretirement, followed by the awkward divorce that ended in his trade to the New York Jets he faced in his first year as a starter. While he tried to assert his leadership, there was something of a divide in the locker room between the gung-ho young players whod connected more with Rodgers than Favre, and the handful of veterans who were taking a wait-and-see approach to the kid.

I think a lot of people probably doubted him, confessed veteran wide receiver Donald Driver, one of those skeptics who earlier in the week pointed out that while he played with two great quarterbacks, only one led him to the Super Bowl that had eluded him for 12 years. When all the things were going up and down on the rollercoaster with Brett, it got to the point where Aaron was a better man than most people would have handled it.

Or, as wide receiver Jordy Nelson put it, When you step into that role after someones been there for so long, all those guys having played with Brett for so many years, and youre the new guy, its hard for anyone to just step in there. He was a leader dont get me wrong. But I think he just became more vocal, more sure of himself. Maybe hes finally gotten our trust everyone on the team (saying), This is your team, do what you need to do.

It is certainly his team now. But when Packers coach Mike McCarthy was asked what was the one biggest hurdle Rodgers had to get over to become an elite quarterback, the L word was again the answer.

If there was one big hurdle, it would be leadership. Leadership was something that we needed to have more of as a football team, said McCarthy, who has emphasized the importance of leadership throughout the playoffs, particularly to the teams six postseason captains. Its something that I have given a lot of thought to over the last couple of years, just creating those opportunities, in particular to Aaron Rodgers, Charles Woodson, A.J. Hawk our leadership is definitely picked up, especially down the run. I dont know if I would say hurdle, but I would say that has been the biggest improvement in Aaron Rodgers.

Since being elevated to the starting job, Rodgers leadership has taken on a variety of forms. Part of it his insistence that, despite being different from his teammates, he not be treated as such. Thats why he is adamant about doing his Wednesday press briefings at his locker instead of in the media auditorium, even though being one of the guys makes life miserable for the assembled reporters and camera crews who stake out real estate around his empty stall and await his arrival.

Part of it is his belief that leadership has to be all-inclusive. He is not the leader of the quarterbacks, not the leader of the offense. He is the leader of the team, which is why those offseason invitations to his house during organized team activity practices and the strength and conditioning sessions were extended to everyone, from the top of the roster to the bottom, from the quarterbacks to the cornerbacks, from the linemen to the linebackers.

Part of it is knowing which players respond to which motivational tools. Some, like supremely gifted but still maturing tight end Jermichael Finley, require tough love. Others, like talented but inconsistent wideout James Jones, need reassurance. Following his drop of what would have been a 63-yard touchdown pass just before halftime of the Packers NFC Wild Card playoff win at Philadelphia, Jones sent Rodgers a series of apologetic text messages the next week, in part because he didnt have another pass thrown his way after the drop. Rodgers insisted to Jones that he didn't intentionally not throw him the ball, and in the Packers NFC Divisional playoff victory six days later, Jones caught all four passes thrown his way for 75 yards, including a spectacular 20-yard touchdown catch.

I knew he was the sickest person in that locker room after the last game, Rodgers explained afterward. But I had confidence in him.

And then, there was Twitter/PhotoGate controversy, and his role in it. By now you know that, when Nick Barnett and Jermichael Finley took their complaints about the injured reserve players being left out of the team photo to Twitter, it was Rodgers, along with Woodson, who went to McCarthy and told the coach that they had to be in the photo. You also know that, last Saturday, Rodgers spoke up just when the distraction seemed to be dead and pointed out, without mentioning them by name, that Barnett and Finley were among the players who didnt stay in Green Bay to do their post-injury rehabilitation. (A position held by, according to nearly a dozen players, much of the locker room.)

But what you didnt know was what Rodgers revealed on Thursday: That it was likely his idea that caused the flap to begin with. During the offseason, Rodgers went to McCarthy with a redecorating idea for the team meeting room at Lambeau Field, suggesting that he hang team photos of the franchises previous championship teams and leave a space for the 2010 team photo to be added after Super Bowl XLV. According to Rodgers, McCarthy co-opted the idea and used it as a motivational tool throughout the year.

He might not tell you that, but a good friend of mine who is also a professional athlete talked about how his coach motivated them in that way, Rodgers explained. I thought that would be a cool thing for us to see every day in the meeting room because we start our day off in that room to be able to think about (for) the entire season what were really playing for by having that empty picture up on the wall.

The team picture will be taken Friday before the team practices at Highland Park High School.

All of which begs the question: Is one born to be a great leader, or does one become a great leader from observing others, through trial-and-error, from a junior college class taken primarily by PE majors?

Ask Crutchfield, Rodgers unforgettable coach/teacher, and he believes its a combination of all of the above.

People often talk about well-known people and the presence they have, and they seem to have the It factor. I dont know if I describe what it means. He just has a presence about him, said Crutchfield, a former All-American at Cal who went on to play for the ABAs Oakland Oaks (with Rick Barry and Larry Brown) and still coaches Buttes mens basketball team. You can see why people would follow him. He just has those qualities.

A lot of the leadership qualities that he has, Im sure he learned them from his family and his experiences growing up as a boy through athletics, through his religion and through the people he associated with. Hes been able to put them into practice in a way that fits him.

He has that confidence, that trust, that integrity. He has the courage of his convictions, and I think he really tries to do the right thing. The class, its a fun class, and we have a lot of discussions. I think he got something out of it. Anything Aaron does, he gets something out of it.

Of course, Rodgers wasnt the only one who got something out of that class. His Butte teammates gained a friend for life. One of those teammates, the one whod been to prison, came to a game earlier this season. Asked who that teammate was Thursday evening for the purposes of this story, Rodgers demurred. Hes a new man, and started a new life, he said, putting yet another leadership lesson to use.

It was a good time for me to take that class and learn about how to be a leader, Rodgers said with a smile, but also try to figure it out on my own.

"Jason Wilde" wrote: