Jimmy Garoppolo’s two Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots came without the quarterback playing a snap in any playoff game. He sat and watched as Tom Brady racked up his fourth and fifth Super Bowl rings. Now it’s Garoppolo’s turn to shine on the biggest stage while Brady watches from home after his team was eliminated by the Tennessee Titans on wild card weekend.
Brady still took time to reach out to his former backup. Garoppolo told NFL Network’s Michael Irvin that Brady reached out via text during the week.
“Yeah, he shot me a text,” Garoppolo said at Super Bowl Opening Night. “Just ‘good luck’ and everything like that. Just go handle business. It wasn’t too complicated or anything. Just go win.”
Winning has come easy so far for Garoppolo. He’s 21-5 as a starter, including this year’s playoffs, since joining the 49ers in a midseason trade in 2017. Now he faces the tall task of knocking off the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV to bring the 49ers their sixth Lombardi Trophy.
That text isn’t the only thing Brady’s done for Garoppolo though. The quarterback explained during the Super Bowl Bye week that sitting behind Brady for a pair of Super Bowl wins helped him learn how to prepare for big moments.
“I think just how calm he was, everyone says you’ve got to treat it like another game, just the way he actually he did it,” Garoppolo said about the things he gleaned from watching Brady. “I was up close and personal, getting all the, picking up everything I could, seeing how he went about his business and everything. And obviously it worked out the two times that I was there with him.”
It’d be remarkable if he followed directly in Brady’s footsteps to put together the defining dynastic run of two two separate decades. Getting a win in Super Bowl LIV wouldn’t get him to Brady’s level, but it would certainly be a good start.
