Jimmy Garoppolo Discusses His Time In New England
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Jimmy Garoppolo recently had an interview with Bleacher Report. Throughout the whole interview, Garoppolo sounds a lot like Tom Brady. Garoppolo talked about the competitiveness between him and Brady. There were times after practice when Brady and Garoppolo would play the bucket game, which consists of landing a football in a trash can in the back corner of the endzone. Garoppolo told Bleacher Report ” There would be days where one of us would win and you wouldn’t talk to the other for a little while,” Jimmy says. “We’d be fine the next day, but it was one of the best things for me. We would push each other and we got two Super Bowls out of it.”
Like I’ve said before, Tom Brady got better after Jimmy Garoppolo was traded. In three seasons, Tom Brady completed 65.1 percent of his passes. Brady threw for 97 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Tom Brady maintained a quarterback rating of 103.1 while in his late 30’s. Brady declined to be in the interview by Bleacher Report. Jimmy Garoppolo was hurt the Patriots traded him but excited at the same time that he’d get a chance to start somewhere.
“WE GOT ALONG, BUT THERE WERE ALWAYS TIMES WHERE WE WANTED TO KILL EACH OTHER.” -Garoppolo, on his relationship with Brady
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Garoppolo discussed his relationship with Tom Brady, saying “The competitiveness between the two of us was very similar. If I’m playing my best friend in one-on-one basketball, if we are both into it, by the end, we are going to hate each other. That’s how it is. All the good competitors have that. We got along, but there were always times where we wanted to kill each other. It was a healthy, competitive relationship.”
At the end of the day, only Jimmy Garoppolo could steal Tom Brady’s job.
The Road Ahead For Jimmy G
Garoppolo was asked if he thought he was better than Tom Brady. He answered, “It was always a quiet confidence, I would never speak that. You believe in yourself, that’s the best way to put it. You have to pick your battles, but I had belief in myself that I could do certain things, and it’s always worked out pretty well. It will always be in me, that drive that comes from my dad telling me that someone is always working harder, that I’m always in last place and I need to catch up to someone else.”
Garoppolo came off just like a younger Brady, who felt he was in last and always played as the underdog. Five years from now, it seems very likely that Jimmy Garoppolo will be the best quarterback in the NFL and the Patriots will be kicking themselves for letting him go.