Aaron Rodgers seemed to be one of the few Packers who wasn’t upset at Giants defensive end Dave Tollefson for mocking the quarterback’s championship-belt celebration after a sack last month.
Rodgers said he actually thought it was funny, if only for the little-known reason the two have been friends for nearly a decade, since Rodgers was a junior-college transfer at Cal and Tollefson was doing odd jobs and carpentry in the Bay Area while trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life after high school.
“I know he thought it was funny because he’s like me — he knows it’s kind of a joke that I’m even in the NFL, considering I used to be a carpenter,” Tollefson said yesterday. “He knew me when I wasn’t doing anything with my life.”
The common denominator was Cal defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, who was good friends with Rodgers during his college playing career and has known Tollefson since high school in Walnut Creek, Calif., near San Francisco.
“Aaron knew me when I wasn’t doing anything with my life,” said Tollefson, who decided to quit carpentry and walk on at Northwest Missouri State.
Rodgers and Tollefson were reunited in the NFL when the Packers made Tollefson a seventh-round pick in 2006 and kept him on their practice squad that entire season before he ended up with the Giants the following year.
“He’s not a close friend, but we’ve known each other for a long time and it’s kind of cool just to keep running into each other playing football,” Tollefson said. “I’m so happy he’s doing well, and I’m sure he’s happy I’m doing well. It’s kind of neat how it’s all worked out.”