"Kevin Kolb could not sleep Sunday night, not after watching the player he looks up to more than any other stand on a platform, the Lombardi Trophy in hand, as the Super Bowl's most valuable player.

Aaron Rodgers is Kolb's guy. They share a brotherhood, each traveling a uniquely complex path to become a starting quarterback in the National Football League.

Rodgers made it to the top. He waited. He endured. He held on when, after three years as Brett Favre's understudy, his confidence was shaken in 2008 after Green Bay's faithful booed him and doubted him and frankly didn't want him. Rodgers survived in 2009 when Favre beat him twice, giving unhappy Packers fans more ammunition in the argument of which quarterback was better.

It took Rodgers three rocky years - no time, really - but he won the Super Bowl. He won the Super Bowl. His receivers and tight end dropped passes, and one of his most valuable defensive teammates got hurt, and Rodgers still found a way to lead the Packers to a 31-25 win over Pittsburgh.

After watching it and seeing how jubilant and grateful and classy Rodgers was in victory, Kolb was jacked up. There was his proof. If he keeps working and keeps being a professional and does not complain about how unfair it was that Andy Reid jerked the starting job from him last season after one half of a football game, he too can get there. All he needs is the chance.

"I told my wife, 'I can do that,' " Kolb said during a phone call Wednesday afternoon while walking on a treadmill at his home in Texas. "If you hear him talk, he says confidence is the one thing that got him through it. They were 6-10. There were a lot of doubters. The coaches, everybody with him knew what they had, but there were times he doubted himself, and I think he's a confident guy.

"You say, 'Man, I can really do it,' and to hear a Super Bowl MVP say it, that means a lot. So you keep pressing. You know it's possible, so you put that in your memory bank and keep working.""