Why the 49ers passed up on Aaron Rodgers will haunt the franchise forever

Needing a quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection, the San Francisco 49ers opted to select Alex Smith out of Utah over Cal product Aaron Rodgers. Of course Rodgers would go on to be a Super Bowl champ and future Hall of Famer, while Smith continues to be a decent-to-solid starting quarterback for the Kansas

Needing a quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection, the San Francisco 49ers opted to select Alex Smith out of Utah over Cal product Aaron Rodgers.

Of course Rodgers would go on to be a Super Bowl champ and future Hall of Famer, while Smith continues to be a decent-to-solid starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

So when Rodgers discussed why the 49ers took Smith over him, we were surprised that it reportedly had nothing to do with his play, per the quarterback himself on Bill Simmons' Any Given Wednesday (H/T FTW):

"The story that I heard, and I don't know if it's true or not, was that Mike Nolan said that when he saw Alex open the car door for his mom, he knew that was the quarterback he wanted.

"I was at lunch with [the 49ers]. My mom wasn't there. My dad wasn't there."

Former head coach Mike Nolan told CSN the reason to snag Smith over Rodgers was because he was the safe pick, while the latter was "cocky" and "arrogant."

If that's not the most ridiculous thing you've heard today, we don't know what is.

Rodgers has always seemed like a pretty down to earth guy, with the exception of his championship belt celebration, which we don't have any problem with.

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