Daryn Colledge (NFL Legend)
Selected by the Packers out of Boise State in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, the durable Offensive Lineman Daryn Colledge spent five seasons with the team. After retiring from the NFL in 2015, Colledge enlisted in the Idaho National Guard in 2016 as a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter repairer. "I always wanted to come back and serve, and I had a great opportunity to do that," said Colledge. "It was like being back in a locker room, just being with a group of people who had the same goal as you and were striving for the same outcome…I found that team and that brotherhood again in the military that I had been missing. Different goals and consequences, but a team nonetheless." Growing up in North Pole, Alaska, Colledge was surrounded by military bases and family members serving, including his brother. He continued fostering that military connection while playing football, traveling as part of a Navy Entertainment trip in 2011 with the Packers and joining United Service Organizations (USO) tours when he could. In 2018, he was deployed to Afghanistan for nine months, serving as a mechanic, door gunner, medic assistant and hoist operator. His four-person medical evacuation unit had to respond to a variety of calls to help bring soldiers home safely. Since returning from Afghanistan, Colledge continued serving in the National Guard through April of 2022. He now serves as a reservist while working for his alma mater, Boise State. "The NFL allowed me the opportunity to take care of my family and do things I never imagined possible. But it also gave me the opportunity to enter into service not as an obligation, but as something I could do for myself," said Colledge.