It's Eerie How Much Jimmy G is Channeling Tom Brady
PFT – 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo … told reporters on Monday that he’s now getting teammates together on Saturdays for extra work.
“We had our first one this weekend,” Garoppolo said. “It’s just something that I like to do. It kinds of gets us away from the coaches and everything, and allows me to talk to the receivers about specific things, or the tight ends or running backs. We try to get everyone out there that we can. I understand people have things that they have to get to. But we had a great showing this Saturday. It was good. Just to be on the same page with those guys, talking through route concepts and how they see it versus how I see it, it just gets us on the same page.” …
Garoppolo explained that it wasn’t an idea that he lifted from Tom Brady, but that it’s something Garoppolo has been doing for a while.
“I’ve done that since high school,” Garoppolo said. “It’s one of those things, when the coaches aren’t there you kind of see a different side of guys. They open up a little bit or tell you how they see a concept compared to how it is written in the book. Just a little bit at a time for us to talk through things, I guess.”
OK, first things first. Jimmy GQ can cut the shit with this business of not getting the idea of extra practices from watching Brady. I’m not questioning his dedication, mind you. Not at all. His work ethic was one of the things that impressed the Patriots’ personnel people enough to take him in the 2nd round. But let’s not pretend he’s been doing regular side sessions “since high school” when there was only one quarterback running them in Foxboro, and he has his own Infinity Gauntlet to show for it.
That minor point aside, good for Garoppolo. You poor, downtrodden, miserable wretches who through accident of birth don’t live in New England or love the Patriots might think those of us who do are somehow resenting Jimmy G’s emerging superstardom. But you couldn’t be more wrong. We actually feel a kind of ownership in it. An emotional investment in his success that won’t go away until he’s facing us in a game. Specifically, a Super Bowl.
This is the same Garoppolo who led a game-winning drive for San Fran and said he was thinking about everything he learned from Brady and Bill Belichick. Who sounded exactly like Brady when he was mic’d up:
So it’s only natural that he’d continue to Single White Female the GOAT now that he’s carving out his own legacy.
The only mistake Garoppolo made was being born too early. If he was coming into the league now instead of four years ago, maybe the end would be near for Brady. And that’s a big “maybe.” Don Yee has confirmed what we all assumed to be true, that his client won’t be going anywhere for at least another four or five years. So all we can do is appreciate the presence of a former student of Brady’s doing Brady-like things on the other side of the continent and wish him godspeed.
P.S. Once the Patriots draft a quarterback this week – and they will – that will mean there are seven QBs who got their start in New England. Six draft picks and Brian Hoyer who was an UDFA. At some point the world will have to acknowledge the Pats are Quarterback U.