Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood: Catching Up with the Ex-Husky Great in a Pandemic

In the first of three segments, the former Washington football player waxes on a number of subjects. If nothing else, you get to see his spiffy sports coat.

You can tell immediately when you meet Jimmy Rodgers why he was a Washington starting strong safety, a team co-captain for an Orange Bowl-bound team and an unabashed leader of the Huskies' 1984 Purple Reign defense. Exceedingly popular among his fellow Huskies, too.

He's always cool under pressure, forthright in his thoughts and opinions, not to mention dapper in his appearance. His teammates swore by him. Counted on him. Would do anything for him.

While downtown Seattle has turned into a virtual ghost town because of the ongoing pandemic, Rodgers, a First Avenue resident, navigates his way carefully and confidently through the empty streets these days.

Rodgers has been a go-to personality and voice for our Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated website practically since the day it launched. We've interviewed him all over downtown Seattle, at the market over salmon skewers, in front of the hammering man, looking down on the waterfront.

We count on him to give us a blunt assessment of the current Huskies. We rely on him to make us laugh. We always enjoy these downtown visits.

In this long overdue segment, Rodgers speaks about the world at hand, his recent hip surgery (residue from his college football career) and even his displeasure with some of the city leaders.

In the video, tongue in cheek, Rodgers actually endorses a pair of candidates he would like to see run the city.

Hoffmann and Clifford.

Before you run to your voter pamphlets and scroll through them to study up on these two "politicians," we need to provide a spoiler alert.

That would be Hoffmann, as in Dave, and Clifford, as in James. Former Husky linebackers from the 1990s and the UW co-national championship team. 

One is still a Secret Service agent, the other a strength and conditioning coach in the Seattle Mariners organization.

Hoff and Cloff.

They're two former head-hunters (the football kind, not job enablers) and fun-loving personalities on the order of Rodgers, though one actually lives in Arizona. So much for passing new initiatives. 

We sit down with Jimmy for three different video segments. Tomorrow, we talk about whether the Huskies should play the 2020 season in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, we'll chat about COVID-19 and how he's dealing with the precautions in place and staying safe.