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Darius Maxwell treated Aaron Rodgers like any other flag football quarterback.
In a now-viral video from the March fundraiser, the junior college student hilariously picked off and taunted Aaron Rodgers during a charity flag football game. After the play, Maxwell handed the ball to Rodgers, who then threw it back at him.
Maxwell spoke to Packersnews.com about his feat that few NFL defensive backs can brag about.
“I’m telling you, I’m from Florida so when we play 7-on-7, we hand the ball back, we punt the ball after an interception,” Maxwell told the website. “We throw the ball to the other side. … In that moment, I can’t tell you why I did it, I was just excited. ‘Here you go, thank you for the ball.’”
Maxwell, a football player at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif. utilized his knowledge as a receiver to foreshadow Rodgers’ next move.
“The whole day I was playing zone. I wasn’t trying to play too much man ’cause I don’t play DB,” said Maxwell, who will be transferring to Division II Wheeling University. “So I was just backing up in my zone, I saw the corner route coming. ‘Cause I play receiver, so I know when they’re in certain positions, what route they’re running.
“They ran a bunch play, I was like ‘watch the corner route, watch the out route, then watch the crossing route.’ I literally called it out. So I just backed up on the corner, came back to the pivot route then came back to the corner. I just knew it, I hid behind the receiver. I didn’t fully go to him, I just sat behind him a little bit, played him … just, the IQ, just been playing football my whole life.”
In his 14 years as a starter, Rodgers has only thrown 92 interceptions, an average of 6.6 per season. Rodgers laughed off the petty move and launched the ball back to the sophomore. However, Rodgers followed up the interception by torching Maxwell in the subsequent series.
“It was nice, it was very nice. Pure (Aaron Rodgers). You can’t stop it. It was nice,” Maxwell said.
Rodgers, who attended a junior college before transferring to University of California, discussed his experiences with Maxwell and his teammate Zachary Roebuck.
“Aaron, he’s a very competitive and very nice person. He was very, very nice. Very nice,” Maxwell said. “Right after the game, he was asking us about our story and how it is in juco. He’s unbelievable.”
RX3 Growth Partners, a private equity firm founded by Rodgers, Nate Raabe and Byron Roth, put on the game in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The all-star teams were led by current and former quarterbacks Mark Sanchez, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Desmond Ridder. The charity game raised over $400,000 for a variety of organizations including Boys & Girls Clubs of America and North Valley Community Foundation.
“Even though it was a charity game, that’s one of the top ones, I’m not going to lie,” Maxwell said.
Source: NYPOST
