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MIAMI — Jimmy Garoppolo’s teammates spent the aftermath of their NFC Championship teasing their starting quarterback. Is your arm sore? Yeah, real sore, Garoppolo joked back.
He did, after all, attempt a taxing eight passes in the blowout win over Green Bay.
The disrespect toward Garoppolo is teetering on becoming a trope. His teammates were kidding, but it’s real outside the 49ers locker room. That’s the reputation that comes for a quarterback who takes a backseat on a team’s Super Bowl run.
Don’t count Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman among the haters. Aikman will be the color commentator alongside Joe Buck for Sunday’s game, and he expects Garoppolo to surprise.
“I understand what happens when you only throw the ball eight times,” Aikman said on Tuesday. “I really believe if he’s needed that he’s certainly capable of playing at a really high level. I really think he’s going to have a much bigger impact on this game than what he had the first two.”
Aikman’s respect for Garoppolo predates even Garoppolo’s tenure with the 49ers.
When Garoppolo was still backing up Tom Brady in New England, Aikman reached out to Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Belichick told him that if something were to happen to Brady, he was confident the Patriots could win with Garoppolo.
“And when Bill Belichick says win, that doesn’t mean win Week 3,” Aikman said. “That means win it all. I thought it spoke volumes for the respect that he had for him.”
Jimmy G's @SuperBowl bound 🙌 #SBLIV
Every @JimmyG_10 pass attempt in the NFC Championship!@49ers | #GoNiners | #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/dqg3IgTTuV
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2020
So much respect that, as the story goes, Belichick and the Patriots approached the 49ers about acquiring him for just a single second-round pick. Belichick respected Kyle Shanahan’s ability to groom quarterbacks and wanted a good landing spot for the soon-to-be free agent.
And now, three years later, here is Garoppolo. Not with the Patriots, but with Shanahan and the 49ers, in a position to win it all.
Although he’s been quiet in the two games preceding the Super Bowl, it was in the final two weeks of the regular season that Garoppolo cemented Aikman’s respect.
“I know there have been those moments where he’s made throws and you say, ‘Wow, what was that?’” Aikman said. “But I also know when he got my attention and proved to me he could get it done on a big stage was in New Orleans, those last two road games. In New Orleans, very meaningful game, he plays great, brings them back and they win the game. Then that Week 17 game at Seattle, really hostile place, tough place to play, could’ve gone all the way to a No. 5 seed if they lose that game and he played exceptionally well in that game, too.”
