What you need to know, plus a whole lot more, about North Pole's Daryn Colledge of the Green Bay Packers, the first Alaskan in more than two decades (and the third overall) to play in a Super Bowl.
Vital statistics
• Offensive guard
• Wears jersey No. 73
• 28 years old
• 6-foot-4, 308 pounds
• Born Feb. 11, 1982, in Fairbanks
• Grew up in North Pole, on S. Santa Claus Lane
• 2000 graduate of North Pole High School
• Played at Boise State from 2002-06 (during which the Broncos were 45-7)
• Drafted by the Packers in the second round, 47th overall, in the 2006 draft; no Alaskan has been drafted higher
• Started every game for the third straight season
• Green Bay's 2009 Walter Payton Man of the Year
• He and wife Megan are expecting their first child this summer
Colledge quotes
A real cheesehead
"I love all cheeses. The aged cheddar's one of my favorites, and I tend to find it at every restaurant. I'm known as the guy on O-line dinner night who orders the cheese plate. Little blocks of cheese, nicely prepared, fruit, dates, a little bit of salami on the side. We're much more sophisticated than we look."
Advice for Rodgers
"I kind of whispered in his ear, 'I hear Tom Brady bought his whole offensive line cars.' So I said, 'If you want to start with TVs, I get that.' If he wants to buy me a new truck, I'm not going to turn it down."
Hairy situation
"I think it's going to be a battle of the beards, battle of the hair. It's going to be one of those Supers Bowls between Troy (Polamalu) and Clay (Matthews) and (Brett) Keisel and me. I think we've got a lot of hair working out here."
Motivation
"I've always been dedicated to things that I enjoy. You find certain things in life and you want to put everything you have into it and it becomes something that means so much to you that you don't want to let it go. I continue to work hard because I want to represent myself and my family and the places I come from."
More motivation
"You want people to be happy with what you've done and where you've come from. I've always worked hard in sports and in school. I wanted my parents to be proud of me; I worked so hard in college that I wanted North Pole to be proud of me, and I've worked so hard in the pros that I wanted Boise State to be proud of what I've done. Now I continue to work so hard because I have a wife and I'm starting a family and I want them to be proud of the things I do."
Linemen Anonymous
"In North Pole and Boise I have a little bit of a following, but for me it's not much work. For a lot of these guys it's crazy. You've got media pressure locally, you've got it nationally with ESPN, and a lot of guys locally in Green Bay trying to get a hold of you."
Beating da Bears
"We knew that we were going to have to scratch, claw and fight for everything we get. We found a way to get enough defense to help us out, and special teams did a great job."
The Big Game
"We've got 60 more minutes to play football this season, and we're playing it as us against the Pittsburgh Steelers. We're trying not to get caught up in the hoopla, the circus of the Super Bowl. For us, it's what do we have to do to beat the No. 1 defense in the country?"
Thanks, Ravens
According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Colledge inadvertently grabbed Boise State's attention. Buck Nystrom, the Eielson coach when Colledge played for North Pole, hoped to help the college aspirations of two Ravens, J.J. Lowe and Doug Lamb, when he sent videotape of an Eielson-North Pole game to Boise State's coaches. But it was Colledge who caught their eye and became a four-year starter for the Broncos.
Sources: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Dallas Morning News, Fox TV 12 (Boise), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, ESPN.