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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy may be one of the favorites to win Super Bowl MVP this year, but under different circumstances he might not have been the team’s starting quarterback at all.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan told Purdy last offseason he would be the 2023 starter unless the team could get veteran quarterback Tom Brady to play his final NFL season in San Francisco, according to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s the GOAT. I get it,'” Purdy said, per Wagoner. “But something deep down inside me was sort of like, ‘Dude, I just showed you that I can play well in this system. And we were one game away from the Super Bowl.’ … More than anything, I was like, ‘OK, now let’s go.'”
Purdy stepped up in place of an injured Jimmy Garoppolo and led the Niners into the 2022 postseason with a 5-0 record in the five final games of the regular season. San Francisco then made it all the way to the NFC Championship, where they lost 31-17 to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Tom Brady grew up in San Mateo, a 20-minute drive from San Francisco, as a 49ers fan. The Niners ended up being one of the 30 NFL teams who passed on Brady in the 2000 NFL draft before he was selected in the sixth round.
Brady said on his podcast in December the snub by his childhood team left him with “a chip on my shoulder for a long time.”
Maybe that’s part of the reason Brady stuck with his February retirement instead of accepting Shanahan’s bid.
In the end, sticking with Purdy seems to have worked for the 49ers. San Francisco is set for the team’s second deep playoff run in as many seasons after a Saturday divisional round victory over the Green Bay Packers, during which Purdy recorded 252 passing yards for one touchdown and no interceptions.
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