Hair today, gone tomorrow — so flaunt it while you've got it.
NFL QBs typically reinvent themselves as they age, and the same can be said of their looks. For those advertising checks to keep cashing and the marketing opportunities to roll in, it's wise for QBs to develop their own sense of style through the years.
Enter Aaron Rodgers. The Packers quarterback is long, long removed from the 2005 NFL Draft, when his look was representative of a long-lost *NSync member who may have spent too much time gelling up his hair in the hotel bathroom, missing the tour bus, ultimately forgotten about.
Rodgers caught the football world's attention this offseason, not only for his drama with the Packers, but because of his new 'do entering his next, and potentially last, season with Green Bay.
Here are Rodgers' most famous looks as he's evolved through the years:
MORE: What happened to Drew Brees' hair?
Aaron Rodgers hair timeline
2005
The gelled-up front-flip with the soul patch was so early 2000s it hurts.
Fresh out of Cal, Rodgers had the frat-boy-who-you-wouldn't-let-date-your-sister look on lockdown: With the Packers QB selecting the California kid with the No. 24 overall pick, Rodgers had a seventh-round grade on his salad.
To be fair to Rodgers, the look was very representative of really bad hair in the early 2000s, so it worked for him then.
2008
Rodgers starts his career by looking like a dude who hangs out at his local Barnes & Noble, scouring the aisles of the manga section.
Rodgers ditched his *NSync look for something a bit more contemporary and modest during his first NFL action as starter in 2008. Nothing fancy or flashy, maybe a bit on the longer sides and the top, but Rodgers would trade flash and pizzazz for simplicity. Thankfully.
2012
Just a couple of jamokes. And Bob Costas.
Rodgers began to really tighten up his play — and the hairdo — in 2012, swapping his previously shaggy look with something a bit tighter to the dome. It would become the signature Rodgers look until recent years.
Thankfully, it looks like Rodgers decided to tone it down on the hair product and go for a more au naturale look in 2012: And it worked out for him, considering he would win his first of three MVP awards following the 2011 season.
2015
And here we see a man who is beginning to discover he can grow a beard.
While the scruff was apparent in years prior, Rodgers starts to turn to the facial hair to continue shifting his visage in his career. He's a rare breed of dude who can make most facial hair looks work — which is pretty exemplary in a few entries down this list.
2018
"Hey, babe." - Aaron Rodgers, probably.
The tight-haired, clean-cut Rodgers is now officially a thing of the past. Rodgers has fully embraced the bearded-dynamo persona. Gone are the days of the boy-band soul patch. Say hello to Brooklyn Hipster Aaron.
If you look closely, you'll notice the gray hairs poking out of Rodgers' chinny-chin-chin, indicating that Rodgers has reached peak wisdom. He likely sits atop the Himalayan mountains in the offseason, consulting with the football gods and meditating on how to pick apart defenses.
… Or maybe that's just what 10 years with Mike McCarthy as your head coach will do to you.
2019
I bet you're wondering why we shared a picture of Burt Reynolds here…
Rodgers takes a step back from the beard to do his best "Mad Men" impression in early 2019. Rodgers wouldn't win MVP — that honor would have to wait a year — but he would return to the the NFC Championship game the following season.
In the offseason, Rodgers would take the finely manicured facial hair before returning to the full beard look for 2020.
2020
"I've made a huge mistake."
As the 2019 season comes to a close, Rodgers once again embraces the full beard look, with the follicles reaching their final form entering the playoffs. It's large and bushy and he looks like he's the frontman for a Mumford & Sons cover band.
The beard would stick around, albeit in a trimmed fashion, for the start of the 2020 season.
2021
"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." - J. Robert Oppenheimer
A year of wandering the desert in search of the eternal well, Aaron Rodgers decided to hang up the cleats and reintroduce himself to the world as a yoga instructor. *Touches ear.* Hold on, I'm being told that is not what happened, and that Rodgers actually returned to the Packers in 2021.
A year of offseason drama makes a person reconsider life, and in Rodgers' case, his hairstyle. While photos snapped of Rodgers over the offseason show a growing head of nearly shoulder-length hair, he fully taps into 2014 men's hair trends an goes full man bun for the start of the 2021 season.
With this, Rodgers has truly reached his "IDGAF" stage as he enters his (presumably) last season with the Packers.
And if it is, then he'll have left his blood, sweat, tears — and strands of hair — all on Lambeau Field.
