SAN MATEO - The 49ers and Raiders may not be playing in the NFL Conference Championships this weekend, but there are a number of key players who either grew up or played in the Bay Area.
There’s the Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, who will play his former running back Marshawn Lynch of the Seahawks on Sunday.
Lynch is coached by a former three sport athlete at Redwood High School in Larkspur Pete Carroll.
The school with the most players this weekend is Stanford. Seahawks Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman both played for the Cardinal. Stanford Defensive Coordinator Lance Anderson coached Sherman.
"I remember there was a time…he was benched for a game and we started somebody else in his place. But again, another guy who didn't give up didn't get discouraged and got better and better. I think his best football has been at the NFL level,” Anderson said.
Stanford coaches might have a hard time picking who to root for if the Seahawks and Colts face off in the Super Bowl. The Colts have former Stanford players TE Coby Fleener and QB Andrew Luck. Luck even has an auditorium named after him in the Stanford Athletic Office.
“Just the things [Luck] did then were just amazing, the throws he could make, the decisions he made...the thing that really impressed me that true freshman year that we really didn't know about him is how mobile he was, how well he ran,” Anderson said.
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Up the Peninsula, New England Patriot WR Julian Edelman attended College of San Mateo. His current QB, Tom Brady, went to Serra High School just a few miles from the campus. Serra is the home of ‘Brady Family Stadium.’
Brady’s top receiver was John Kirby.
"If I had press coverage I would lean down and pull my sock up. So when he would see me pull up my sock he'd tap the front of his face mask, and we'd change it to a fade route,” Kirby said.
Everyone at the school thought Brady would grow up to be a famous baseball player. Instead he went on to play in the NFL, win three Super Bowls, and be named NFL MVP twice.
"The one [call] he used to use a lot was 'green 91, green 91!' I think it was a few weeks ago I actually heard him do it in a game and it brought me right back,” Kirby said.
Brady’s not the only Serra HS NFL player in the weekend championships. Green Bay Packer left tackle David Bakhtiari also went to Serra.
"The funny story about David is he didn't start a game until his final game of high school. So I don't think there are many guys in the NFL who didn't start a game until their senior year,” said Serra HS Athletic Director Dean Ayood.
And the list goes on. New England RB Shane Veeren went to Cal and Seattle’s Robert Turbin is from Fremont.
The winner of the games this weekend will face off on February 1st for Super Bowl 49.
