Cal Sports Report

Video: Marshawn Lynch Compliments Aaron Rodgers for a Moment at Cal

Lynch recalls a practice when he was a freshman and Rodgers was a junior for the Golden Bears in 2004

Jake Curtis

Marshawn Lynch
Marshawn Lynch / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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An interesting tweet involving a conversation between former Cal star Marshawn Lynch and Shannon Sharpe passed through the social media world this week, and focused on Lynch's appreciation of Aaron Rodgers.

Now, of course, Rodgers is an NFL free agent trying to find his next home, but in 2004 he was a junior in his second season as Cal's starting quarterback and an acknowledged star. Lynch was just an incoming Cal freshman that season, fresh out of high school at nearby Oakland Tech.

The Bears' starting running back that season was J.J. Arrington, who had rushed for over 600 yards in 2003 and would rush for 2,018 yards in 2004 and be named a first-team All-American.

So Lynch was surprised when, as a freshman, he was told to get in there during a preseason practice. He ended up running the wrong way on a play, but he noted that Rodgers was able to adjust and get the handoff to him. Then when coaches got all over Lynch for running the wrong way, Lynch noted that Rodgers spoke up and took the blame.

Oh, by the way, despite Arrington's numbers Lynch was able to run for 628 yards and average 8.8 yards per carry as a freshman in 2004, when Cal went 10-1 during the regular season and was ranked No. 4 in the final regular-season poll. (We won't talk about the painful postseason story.)

Check out the video for yourself:

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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