Forget the haters. 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo wins games but it’s never enough for ‘fans’
Jimmy Garoppolo’s curse isn’t so much a tender shoulder or a bum thumb. It’s this: He isn’t Joe or Steve, guys with everyman names but blessed with Hall of Fame skills.
You know, as in Montana and Young.
He’s just Jimmy, and for his teammates, that’s plenty. He is their guy, their quarterback, their leader. Garoppolo who has been solid if not superb, effective if not elite. If football is about wins and losses, then Garoppolo has done his share, if not done with bells, whistles and gaudy touchdown-to-interception ratios. His regular-season record is 31-14. His postseason record is 4-1, the loss coming in the Super Bowl to Kansas City following the 2019 season.
“What Jimmy Garoppolo has is the locker room, the support of his teammates and coaches, and that’s everything in this sport,” said John McVay, the 49ers front-office executive for each of the franchise’s five Super Bowl winners, now retired at 91 in Placer County. “Jimmy is a great teammate. His teammates and coaches say that, and that’s the best compliment one can have in sports. He’s done a lot already.”
And more: The 49ers are the first team in league history to win three road games against opponents sporting 12 or more victories. A win Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game will extend the mark, and it still may not be good enough for a good many 49ers fans who don’t expect the moon. They want Jupiter and those rings.
Garoppolo is not the man of those people. Football and fans go hand-in-hand. People wear jerseys of their beloved players at games because they feel that connection. But you don’t see Garoppolo jerseys at games. You still see Montna and Young garb, sometimes even a Jeff Garcia. No 49ers player in recent years has been savaged as much as Garoppolo on social media. He is fumed and frowned upon as if he has thrown puppies, nuns and children into a raging river.
He’s thrown interceptions and relied on special teams, defense and a run game to get to this point of the season. He also relied on those elements the last time he was in an NFC title game, two years ago, when Garoppolo attempted just eight passes in a 37-20 victory over Green Bay.
Fans invest time and money in their teams. We get that. Garoppolo is the target of fans who hate for the sheer sport and spite of it. I call that wasted energy. It can be worse, certainly. It can always be worse. There have been no death threats on Garoppolo, at least not reported, and we don’t mention this in passing or as a joke. Unhinged fans don’t hold back. Colin Kaepernick received death threats when he was quarterbacking the 49ers, not because he didn’t win a Super Bowl following the 2011 season but for kneeling during the national anthem.
Even Montana received death threats
Shoot, even Montana received death threats. It happened the week of his first finest hour with the franchise. That was 40 years ago this month, when Montana hit a soaring Dwight Clark for “The Catch” in the NFC Championship game against the Dallas Cowboys in the closing moments of an NFC title game at Candlestick Park.
Moments later, when the game was final, there was Montana bolting across the field, ball tucked under his arm, his index finger signaling No. 1, and he spirited into the tunnel that led to the locker room. Fans poured onto the field and Montana was in a rush as if he had a plane to catch. What he needed to catch was his breath. He lay on the locker room floor, spent, and no wonder.
Before the biggest game of his life, Montana was informed by club security that a death threat had been phoned in. Said Montana years later to Gary Myers, who wrote the book, “The Catch” that detailed every bit of that game and significance, “They told me on the sideline that there was a death threat. Nobody wanted to stand by me. People scattered quickly. Somebody was going to try and shoot me during the game.”
Montana added on his reasoning to bolt off the field, “I got the hell out of there. I wasn’t taking a chance.”
Garoppolo can shine Sunday, or not
The only other time the 49ers and Rams faced off in the playoffs came at the end of the 1989 season, in the NFC Championship. The 49ers rolled 30-3, on their way to repeating as Super Bowl champions as Montana cemented his greatness. Against the Rams, Montana was sharp, nearly flawless.
Color man John Madden on that CBS telecast said, “If they put a statue outside of Candlestick of Joe Montana, I think everyone would just walk by it and bow their head right now.”
Garoppolo isn’t going to get a statue anytime soon, but Sunday could be his crowning moment, a second NFC Championship conquest in three seasons, another Super Bowl ticket. He doesn’t have to be Joe or Steve. He doesn’t have to burden the load. Just don’t make mistakes. Don’t blunder.
If the 49ers do not defeat the Rams for the seventh consecutive time, you can bet Garoppolo will take the heat, just because. There is the actual game and then the blame game, and the latter has become a tired act. Fans forget in a hurry how lean it was for the 49ers not long ago, including going 2-14 in 2016, 4-12 in 2018 and 6-10 in 2020. “Fans” should boo those seasons and memories.