California is well known as perhaps the premier feeder of quarterbacks
into the NFL. Lesser known is that a most of the best are natives from the
Northern half of the state.
Products of Southern California
mostly dominate the sheer numbers of professional athletes and success,
but in the premier position of the nation's most popular sport, Northern
Californians have the edge presently and historically.
In
fact, of the eight remaining starting quarterbacks heading into this
weekend's NFL playoffs, three are NorCal natives, headed by two of
the sport's all-time greats, Tom Brady of the Buccaneers and Green Bay's
Aaron Rodgers. The Packers host the 49ers Saturday, while Rams visit Tampa Bay on Sunday.
Brady
attended
Serra (San Mateo), about about 25 miles south of his favorite
childhood team, the San Francisco 49ers. Rodgers also rooted for the
49ers while he prepped at
Pleasant Valley (Chico), more than 150 miles northeast of San Francisco.
The third NorCal quarterback product is
Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, who visit Kansas City on Sunday. Allen was a three-sport standout at
Firebaugh, approximately 40 miles Northwest of Fresno.
Others from the North on the list were: No. 4. Dan Fouts of
St. Ignatius (San Francisco), No. 5 Norm Van Brocklin of
Acalanes (Lafayette), No. 10 Jim Plunkett of
James Lick (San Jose), No. 11 John Brodie of
Oakland Tech, No. 12 Craig Morton of Campbell, No. 13 Daryle Lamonica of
Clovis, No. 14 Jeff Garcia of
Gilroy, No. 15 Ken O'Brien of
Jesuit (Carmichael), No. 18
Colin Kaepernick of
Pitman (Turlock), No. 20 Jim Harbaugh of
Palo Alto, No. 23 Trent Dilfer of
Aptos and No. 25 Goff.
