SANTA CLARA, CA – AUG. 29: San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) and quarterback Trey Lance (5) prepares to throw a move earlier than their preseason sport at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Space Information Group)
Fewer than 48 hours after enjoying in his second NFC Championship Recreation within the final three seasons, Jimmy Garoppolo bid adieu to 49ers followers.
“It’s been a hell of a trip, guys. Love you guys. So, see ya,” Garoppolo mentioned in what amounted to a farewell press convention on Tuesday.
It was Tremendous Bowl title or bust for Garoppolo, who noticed the writing on the wall bolded and underlined when the 49ers chosen Trey Lance with the No. 3 general choose within the 2021 NFL Draft.
For some franchises, it could be tough — maybe inconceivable — to half with a quarterback who has led a group to a Tremendous Bowl look and one other convention title sport within the span of three years.
Not for the 49ers.
The usual for San Francisco quarterback play was set by a pair of Corridor of Fame passers who gained a number of championships and MVP Awards, Joe Montana and Steve Younger.
Almost 30 years after the group gained its fifth Tremendous Bowl title, that customary stays unchanged.
“There are some cities the place you get a group to a championship sport and also you’re a hero,” Younger advised KNBR this week. “It’s like, ‘Nice, thanks, that was superior, it was memorable.’ It’ll outline your profession in a optimistic manner. After which there are some cities, like ours, the place it’s not about that. It’s about Tremendous Bowls.”
Younger isn’t fallacious.
For the reason that two-time MVP was final a full-time starter in 1998, the 49ers have spent a quarter-century chasing greatness at an important place in sports activities.
Steve Mariucci twice made the playoffs with Jeff Garcia, Jim Harbaugh and Alex Smith paired up for a NFC Championship Recreation run and the 49ers reached a Tremendous Bowl and one other NFC title sport after Harbaugh changed Smith with dual-threat quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Kyle Shanahan was getting ready to teaching the 49ers to their sixth Tremendous Bowl victory when Garoppolo’s offense stalled and San Francisco’s protection melted down in opposition to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in February 2020. Two years later, Garoppolo’s game-sealing interception in opposition to the Rams within the fourth quarter of Sunday’s matchup at SoFi Stadium leaves the 49ers precisely the place they have been when Younger suffered a career-ending concussion in Week 3 of the 1999 season.
It’s as soon as once more time for a transition on the quarterback place, and something lower than greatness gained’t be tolerated.
“It is a metropolis that calls for that and I like that about being a 49er, truthfully,” Younger mentioned. “The strain is the factor the place you be taught essentially the most about your self. For good or for unhealthy, there are cities the place you will get within the playoffs and so they make a parade, however not this one, and I like it.”
The usual is increased in San Francisco as a result of legendary head coach Invoice Walsh demanded as a lot.
Again within the Nineteen Eighties, Walsh pitted Montana and Younger in opposition to each other. The outcome was a tenuous scenario that clearly irritated Montana, who had already gained two Tremendous Bowl titles when Walsh introduced an open competitors for the beginning job.
“Our power is at quarterback, however our drawback is that we've two,” Walsh mentioned earlier than the 1988 season. “There’s a quarterback controversy growing and we’re going to have to pick out between Steve Younger and Joe Montana.”
The experiment wasn’t an in a single day success — the 49ers completed the common season 9-7 — however Montana secured back-to-back blowout playoff victories earlier than main a game-winning Tremendous Bowl drive within the fourth quarter in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Joe Montana just isn't human,” Bengals large receiver Chris Collinsworth mentioned postgame. “He’s not God, however he’s undoubtedly not human.”
The usual for 49ers quarterback play, it seems, was nonetheless being set. The subsequent 12 months, Montana gained the primary of his back-to-back MVP Awards and the 49ers cruised to their fourth Tremendous Bowl title.
When a severe elbow harm to Montana compelled Younger into motion as a full-time starter in 1991, expectations continued to escalate. His MVP season in 1992 helped persuade the 49ers to commerce Montana to Kansas Metropolis, and gave the fan base hope that the times after Montana’s reign could be simply as fruitful.
As 49ers followers watched a Corridor of Famer succeed a Corridor of Famer, it’s straightforward to see why no quarterback within the final two-plus many years has been capable of dwell as much as the lofty customary that doesn’t exist in lots of different locales.
“Since I’ve gotten right here,” Garoppolo mentioned Tuesday. “It’s been about me wanting to depart the place higher than after I acquired right here.”
There’s little doubt Garoppolo achieved that aim, nevertheless it’s not the one most 49ers followers count on their quarterback to aspire to. It is a franchise the place MVP-caliber play and Tremendous Bowl titles are how a quarterback is judged, even it’s been virtually 30 years for the reason that final time the 49ers hoisted a Lombardi trophy.
Suppose Lance, the 21-year-old who's all of the sudden the face of the franchise, feels strain? It’s not from being the No. 3 choose within the draft or from needing to earn the respect of veteran gamers contained in the locker room.
That strain comes from being the beginning quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, a title which nonetheless carries the sky-high expectations set earlier than Lance was even born.