GREEN BAY — If Jerry Rice could pick one quarterback in today's NFL to catch passes from, it'd be the same guy who threw him the ball during a pre-draft workout more than a decade ago: Aaron Rodgers.
In an interview with the Talk of Fame Network's Clark Judge, Rice said he'd pick the Green Bay Packers quarterback as the one current QB he'd want to play with.
"And the reason why is that I think he makes everyone better around him," Rice said. "His execution on the football field is just unbelievable. He has accuracy, a strong arm, can throw the ball on the run, can throw the ball anywhere on the football field. Just an exceptional quarterback.
"I would want to line up with this guy today. (Imagine) the things that we could do on the football field. Aaron Rodgers can make every throw possible."
If somehow it happened, it wouldn't be the first time Rodgers and Rice connected. Before the 2005 NFL Draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers worked Rodgers out on campus at the University of California, and then-Bucs coach Jon Gruden brought Rice along to catch passes from Rodgers during the workout.
"And Aaron Rodgers freaked out. He couldn't hit anything. He was throwing the ball high and all over the place," Rice said. "But to watch him now and to watch him go out and compete ... he's doing a good job."
Rodgers has told that story a few times over the years, including to the Tampa Bay media during a conference call with them before a game in 2011. The workout was for Gruden, then-quarterbacks coach Paul Hackett and then-general manager Bruce Allen.
"Jon ... said he had a surprise for me after we kind of watched some film and talked some ball,"' Rodgers recounted. "One of my childhood, favorite players, being a huge 49ers fan growing up, Jerry Rice comes walking down the steps, and I get to throw passes to him.
"Think about a 21-year-old kid throwing to one of your idols, how nervous you think you would be, I was that and then some. I overthrew him a couple times, but it was exciting to be able to throw to him and to work with Jon and Paul, great coaches who had been around the game a long time.'"
Two days before the draft, according to Rodgers, Gruden called him and suggested that the Bucs would likely take him if he was on the board at No. 5. Instead, they took Auburn running back Cadillac Williams, who became the NFL's offensive rookie of the year before suffering two major knee injuries that derailed his career.
"I don't fault them for taking Cadillac," Rodgers said. "He had an incredible college career and a great rookie season. He was slowed down by some injuries.
"But I don't blame them at all or don't hold any animosity toward Jon and Bruce or the organization. Everything kind of happens for a reason. Looking back on when they came out and visited me in Berkeley, that was one of my top moments in my sports career, being able to throw to Jerry Rice."
Jason Wilde wrote: