Anybody who watches the game show Jeopardy! or at least has been near social media enough has heard the name James Holzhauer. He took the game show by storm when he dominated a stretch of 33 episodes from April to June, winning a grand total of $2,464,216. This made him the second-winningest player in the show’s history, finishing less than $60,000 short of kingpin Ken Jennings.
The man is quite the celebrity these days. As it turns out, he has his fair share of fans. One that might surprise people? Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The future Hall of Famer is a huge Jeopardy! nerd. He even appeared on the Celebrity version of the show and won. So it’s no surprise he’s become a big admirer of Holzhauer.
The feeling is mutual, at least from the aspect of the game show itself. However, it stops there for Holzhauer who made it perfectly clear that Rodgers and he will probably never be friends as Peter King of NBC Sports pointed out.
“James Holzhauer? He’s awesome,” Aaron Rodgers told NBC’s Chris Simms recently. The Packers quarterback watches “Jeopardy” nightly.
The praise was cool for Holzhauer when I told him, but hardly overwhelming. “Aaron’s one of the best players ever on ‘Celebrity Jeopardy,’ for those who don’t watch,” Holzhauer said. “I know he’s a fan of the show. I’m a Bears fan though, so …”
James Holzhauer is staying true to his roots
This shouldn’t be a big surprise. Holzhauer is a native of Naperville, Illinois. He grew up right in the Chicago Bears’ backyard. That means he, like many others, endured the tortures of what Rodgers put the team through over the past decade. So while he may admirer the quarterback for his obvious intelligence, there is no way the man could bring himself to like him.
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Holzhauer must’ve been thrilled like everybody else seeing the Bears take the Packers down for the division title last year. He’ll have a chance to regain his mastery of the Jeopardy! realm when the Tournament of Champions begins this fall. He will take on 14 other of the biggest winners from the past two seasons of the show. It would be even more fun if he and Rodgers got to go head-to-head for charity one of these days.
