The sound never stopped.

As Carolina Panthers secondary coach Richard Rodgers stood talking to reporters Friday morning, he patiently ignored the constant buzzing of the cellphone in his pocket.

12 hours earlier, he was standing near the side of his bed when his son jumped. When Richard Rodgers II landed, he became part of NFL lore.

 

Late Thursday night, the Packers tight end caught a 61-yard Hail Mary from quarterback Aaron Rodgers to give Green Bay an improbable walk-off win over the Lions. Back in Charlotte, dad was watching.

"As the play was developing, and I saw Aaron got outside, I thought to myself, wow, if [Richard] can get it up there, he's going to get it," Rodgers Sr. said. "That's just me being a dad."

Maybe, but his 6-foot-4 son was born to make a play like that. Nicknamed 'Biggie' because "he was a very big child," Rodgers II was a high school basketball star in Massachusetts. He was talked into playing football, and that's what he played when he went to Cal, following in his father's footsteps. It would be impossible to step out of his shadow.

In 1982, Rodgers Sr. had a hand in two of Cal's five laterals as they made their way through the Stanford band. It's known simply as The Play.

Now, Rodgers Sr. may have the second-most memorable finish in his family.

"I think he's got me," he said of his son's game-winning grab, which came on an untimed down.

Moments earlier, the Packers tried a hook-and-ladder lateral play, which failed after Rodgers II threw the ball back to Aaron Rodgers. But a facemask penalty on Lions defensive end Devin Taylor gave Green Bay one more shot.

"It's the complete scenario," Rodgers Sr. said. "Rodgers throws it to Rodgers, not Aaron to Richard but Richard to Aaron that started the whole thing. The penalty gets called. Then Rodgers throws it back to Rodgers again. I couldn't write a better script than that!"

 

 

Just like there are a lot of Rodgers's in this story, there have been plenty of Hail Marys before. But who else has gone through a band?

"I'm sure there's some people out there who would think it's just a Hail Mary, but the Doug Flutie play was just a Hail Mary play, too," Rodgers Sr. said. "It always rivals The Play, so why not have my son be better than me as opposed to the Flutie play?"

 

Few know the Rodgers family better than Ron Rivera, who was a teammate of Rodgers Sr. at Cal. So it's a bit of a bummer the Panthers head coach missed seeing the moment live.

"I went to bed thinking Detroit's going to win," Rivera said. "But it goes back to the whole thing, that's why you play them."

"I woke up this morning and looked up, and they started talking about the great Green Bay comeback and I said, 'Wait a minute.' So then I popped it on and that was unbelievable."

And that's why Rodgers Sr.'s phone is still buzzing. But no call or text will beat the messages he exchanged with his son in the early Friday morning.  

"I told him that was a big-time play. He said, 'Thanks. I think I've got you beat,'" Rodgers Sr. said.

"I was probably more impressed by his interview afterwards and the way he handles himself and what he's grown up to be than anything."

"It was awesome to see and awesome for our family."