Tom Brady was one of the quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo watched when he was younger, but as good as Brady was, there was a different quarterback that he admired as he was growing up.
Growing up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is just 45 minutes from Chicago, you would have thought that the Bears would have been the team he rooted for. But according to Garoppolo, while he did watch what Brady accomplished, there was a different QB that he held in high regard.
“Well Tom is one of them, obviously,” Garoppolo said when asked about the topic on Monday. “And you know, even though I’m from Chicago I always liked Brett Favre growing up. I thought he was a heck of a quarterback, and so you know you watch so many guys. I was addicted to football as a kid, and it’s just fun to watch guys, I mean everyone’s different, has a different throwing technique and everything, and you just learn things from each one of them.”
Quarterback has been an inconsistent position for the Bears over the years, which hasn’t included anyone of note since the days when Jim McMahon was calling signals when they won the Super Bowl at the end of the 1985 season. From there it’s been a mess that has included guys like Mike Tomzak, Jim Harbaugh, Erik Kramer, Jim Miller, Kordell Stewart, Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton and now Jay Cutler.
As a result, it’s easy to see why he might have latched on to another team, and Favre was as big as Brady in that area back during the peak of his career.
“Oh man, come on. Yeah they went through a little bit of a dry spell there,” said Garoppolo, speaking about the Bears quarterbacks. “But no I just always liked Favre, his toughness and everything. He was a heck of a player.”
Having had the opportunity to play with a player like Brady, he’s been able to see up close how a quarterback like that prepares and the type of work ethic it takes to be at that level. Brady credited Garoppolo on Sunday for being someone who works hard and has earned the respect of players around him, and it’s something that he’s taken to heart as he continues trying to prepare to be the starter in Brady’s place when the season begins next month.
“It’s awesome,” said Garoppolo of Brady’s praise. “You know, Tommy is a guy that I look up to and I’ve learned a lot from him. And, you know, it’s always a privilege to hear something like that from a guy that you respect like that.”
With Brady still playing at a high-level, the possibility is there that if Garoppolo plays well, he could earn himself an opportunity to start elsewhere next season. The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs wonders if given the problems the Bears continue to have whether or not the Bears would bring Garoppolo in to try and turn things around.
Given the relationship Belichick already admitted the club has with the Bears front office, It’s an obvious landing spot if things don’t go well in Chicago this year, and dealing him out of the conference certainly makes sense.
But first, Garoppolo has to play well, and he’s just glad that his shot to prove himself is finally here.
“You know, it’s an opportunity and I’m excited about it,” said Garoppolo. “It’s a privilege to be in the situation I’m in and you just got to go take advantage of it.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
