We Have Blaine Bennett To Blame For Aaron Rodgers’ Ascent

He appears to be the coach that rejected him from Purdue.

I used a younger photo of Aaron Rodgers, sure.

If you’ve ever listened to one interview with Aaron Rodgers that touches on football vs. vaccination or RFK Jr. or his family or whatever else — including the interviews contained in the recent Netflix series, called Enigma, you know that a major Rodgers sticking point is that when he came out of HS, he was basically ignored by the entirety of Division 1. But for some reason, this specific rejection letter from Purdue stung him pretty bad — even though he was a Northern California boy and you would generally assume he has no desire to go play football in West Lafayette, Indiana.

He’s talked a few times — 60 Minutes, E:60, etc. — about the Purdue assistant coach rejection story, which is a staple of the Aaron Rodgers Chip On Shoulder narrative.

I decided to make an effort to figure out who the assistant coach might have been.

Rodgers graduated from high school in the spring of 2002; he claims he sent the tape to Purdue in his senior year — that probably means the fall of 2001, football-wise.

The 2001 Purdue Boilermakers team, 6–6 in the Big Ten with Kyle Orton as QB, had Joe…