Damn near perfect: Sportsnet on Aaron Rodgers, who is making his case as the best ever

- Presenting Sportsnet’s Canadian Athlete of the Year: Patrick Chan -

- 2011 Sportsnet Awards: Celebrating the best and worst in sports from the past year -

- The team that disappeared: Sifting through the wreckage of hockey’s worst disaster -

TORONTO (Dec. 8, 2011) – For nearly two decades, Green Bay Packers fans looked to Brett Favre as their leader. Upon Favre’s retirement in 2010, it didn’t take long for a new hero to emerge.

Sportsnet assistant editor Adam Elliott Segal profiles the rise of Aaron Rodgers — the 24th pick of the 2005 draft and Favre’s former backup — who went from a “middle-class kid from California” to “undeniably the best player in the NFL.”

2011 Sportsnet Awards

From breakouts and boneheads to milestones and meltdowns, Sportsnet honours the best and worst in sports from 2011.

Earning Sportsnet’s Canadian Athlete of the Year award is figure skating superstar Patrick Chan. Sportsnet senior writer Ryan Dixon speaks to Chan about bouncing back from a disappointing finish at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games to a record-setting 2011 season.

The team that disappeared

On September 7, 2011, a plane crash in Russia shook the hockey world as 26 players and 11 coaches and staff of the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl were killed. Sportsnet senior writer Brett Popplewell, in Yaroslavl and Moscow, visits the scene of the crash and speaks to the friends and family members still coming to terms with “hockey’s darkest day.”

Also in this edition:

• The Bones Crusher: Polite. Articulate. Educated. Jon “Bones” Jones isn’t your typical fighter, but he’s the future of the MMA

• The Next Big Thing: The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Nathan MacKinnon has a story that’s familiar, but he is writing his own ending

• They’re Back: A new crop of young superstars, led by MVP Derrick Rose, is taking over the NBA

• Last Word: Stephen Brunt on Muhammad Ali’s impact on a generation of sports fans

About Sportsnet magazine

Sportsnet is Canada’s only biweekly sports magazine. It is Canada's leading source for in-depth perspective and inside reports on hockey, baseball, football, soccer and other professional sports and premier amateur sports. Sportsnet magazine is part of the multiplatform Sportsnet brand, which exists on five platforms: television, radio, digital, mobile and print. It is published 26 times a year by Rogers Publishing Limited, a division of Rogers Media Inc.

For more information about Sportsnet magazine, visit

http://www.sportsnet.ca/magazine

For subscriptions, visit http://subscribe.sportsnet.ca

Twitter: @Sportsnetmag

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