Aaron Rodgers makes his long-awaited NFL return back in the Bay Area… where ping pong, poker and Backstreet Boys catapulted the former Cal QB towards stardom

Aaron Rodgers fell into the same routine whenever he flew out of the Bay Area: find Richard Schwartz and turn up the volume. The two quarterbacks met at Cal in 2003 and competed for the same starting spot. They became close.

“We sat next to each other on the plane to away games,” Schwartz says. “Back then, we didn’t have iPods or iPads or anything. We had CD players … and we traded headphones.”

The quarterbacks each had their own favorites. “He loved country music and the greatest hits of the ’80s and ’90s,” Schwartz recalled. Oh, and the music composed by his teammate’s girlfriend.

“She made me a CD playlist of early 2000s boy bands — Backstreet Boys, all that stuff,” says Schwartz, who now works in real estate. “Aaron would love to listen to the CD she made me. It was so funny. He’d be like, ‘Oh, give me your headphones!’

Schwartz left after a few months, but Rodgers played two seasons for the University of California at Berkeley, where he built a career that catapulted him to superstardom.

On Sunday, the 40-year-old hopped on another plane for an away game. Two decades after leaving Cal, he returns to the Bay to begin his 20th season in the NFL.

Rodgers heads into the Jets’ opener against the 49ers as one of the most decorated, most polarizing quarterbacks in history, a quarterback synonymous with conspiracy theories, controversy and alternative medicine.

A quarterback whose public image clashes with the memories of former teammates. They played alongside the Rodgers who entered the NFL, and those bonds were forged over ping-pong and poker and video games and broken arms — and a Joe Montana jersey that barely reached his belly button.

“He’s obviously misunderstood. I know him and I know his heart. The guy’s got a heart of gold,” said Rodgers’ leading receiver at Cal, Geoff McArthur. “He was the best teammate I ever had.”

Rodgers always challenged those around him. More recently, he has challenged conventional wisdom. For former Cal fullback Chris Manderino, that’s not so different from Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Even Muhammad Ali.

“Sometimes you have to be a little bit of an asshole,” Manderino says. “It’s not about being friends with everyone.”

But in 2004, Rodgers led Cal to one of the school’s most “special” seasons in decades.

This November, the quarterback is set to reunite and take a trip down memory lane. But first up? The 49ers.

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McArthur carries a permanent reminder of Rodgers with him. Six of them. They’re buried under his skin, and they’ve been there for 20 years. “We’re entwined … forever,” the wide receiver says.

Rodgers broke McArthur’s arm. The receiver’s crime? He tried to catch a pass. “The force of the ball is what broke my arm,” McArthur recalled. “I have six screws and a plate to this day.”

The quarterback entered the NFL draft following the 2004 season, when the Golden Bears went 10-2 and Rodgers made NCAA history.

“I’ll never forget that USC game, when he had 23 completions in a row,” McArthur says. Suddenly, everything clicked. “All the hype, everything clicked at that moment.”

Others realized it much earlier. For Schwartz, Rodgers’ gifts and work ethic were apparent almost immediately. “The first couple weeks, I would see him throw the ball,” he says. Schwartz called his mother, and she asked about the new kid. “He’s just different,” Schwartz told her.

But Mom remained optimistic. “It’s going to be OK,” she insisted. After all, Rodgers had been ignored by Division 1 teams out of high school. He considered quitting football altogether and only came to Cal’s attention when coaches scouted tight end Garrett Cross. Even after college, he was overlooked by the 49ers in the NFL draft.

“From those early days, Aaron always played with a chip on his shoulder,” says Manderino. “He wanted to prove something.” That never went away, the former full-back believes. Fortunately, Rodgers delivered.

At Cal, quarterbacks were given computers and every Sunday they were loaded with data about their next opponent.

“It would take me until Wednesday or Thursday to really learn it,” Schwartz recalled. Rodgers would have it all processed by Monday night. “He was literally a savant.”

Schwartz recalls one particular game when Rodgers changed the play call before throwing a long touchdown pass. Teammates and coaches were stunned.

But Rodgers later explained, “I’ve seen so much footage of their free safety that 70 percent of the time I saw him go from a cover two to a cover three when he puts his left leg in front of his right leg.”

Simply put, the defenders would rotate, ruining the original play. So he took a chance. “We’re 20-year-old guys,” Schwartz says. “Once he did that, I was like, ‘F***.'”

Rodgers was a reserved man at the time. He didn’t go out much. He was always willing to teach McArthur a lesson in ping-pong, pool or video games.

“I’ve never beaten this guy at anything,” said McArthur, now a high school coach. “He’s ultra-competitive … you’re nice and cool, and all of a sudden you get beat up.”

Rodgers was especially brutal in ping-pong. “A complete strategist,” McArthur says. “He studied you as he drove you around. And then he just took advantage of your weakness.”

Manderino spent many nights at the poker table across from the quarterback. They played for pride or pocket change — $20 or $40 — and Rodgers was adept at bluffing. Fortunately, luck plays a role. So? “Every once in a while, we got a chance to beat him. So that felt good,” Manderino says.

Rodgers would then become ‘really pissed off’ and feel like talking nonsense.

None of that masked how the quarterback really felt, though. None of that stopped him from being a great teammate and leader.

“He just cared about us,” McAarthur said. “He cared about us as individuals, even outside of football.” The quarterback had nicknames for all of his teammates, and he’s kept in touch with some of them.

“He was very, very concerned about my cancer diagnosis,” said McArthur, who was beaten twice in two years.

The quarterback offered his help — but it proved nothing. “I know how he feels about me … he’s a loving, compassionate, empathetic person.”

He also remains a formidable competitor on the field. Rodgers will face the 49ers nearly a year after he tore his Achilles tendon — and two decades after they ignored him. San Francisco has always been close to the quarterback’s heart.

“He was wearing an old-fashioned undershirt under his pads…an old, gray, worn-out Joe Montana shirt,” Schwartz recalled.

“It only went up to his belly button, but he wore it every game.” It stank. But it was his good luck charm. Otherwise, Rodgers’ methods were more conventional back then. No ayahuasca or darkness retreats.

“I think it took him a while to accept that it’s okay to be yourself,” McArthur says.

On Monday night, the 40-year-old begins his quest for a second Super Bowl. Later this season, the Jets have a bye week and plans to gather the 2004 class for a Cal game.

Rodgers has rekindled the potential for a reunion with the team that led him on the long and winding path to Santa Clara.

“It’s one of those friendships,” McArthur says. “Twenty years can go by and when we see each other, it feels the same. Like we were right there in the stadium.”