At the age of 40, Brett Favre led the Minnesota Vikings to the
NFC Championship game this season.
Kurt Warner willed the Cardinals to the Super Bowl last season
at age 38, and to the playoffs again at 39.
Turning 40 later this month, Jeff Garcia is primed to make his
return to the gridiron and to feel the camaraderie of a team again.
He is a natural leader, full of competitive passion and still ripe
with the desire to play. For a guy who fought for everything he has
earned in his career, he isn’t ready to throw in the towel, eager
for one more round.
At the age of 40, Brett Favre led the Minnesota Vikings to the NFC Championship game this season.
Kurt Warner willed the Cardinals to the Super Bowl last season at age 38, and to the playoffs again at 39.
Turning 40 later this month, Jeff Garcia is primed to make his return to the gridiron and to feel the camaraderie of a team again. He is a natural leader, full of competitive passion and still ripe with the desire to play. For a guy who fought for everything he has earned in his career, he isn’t ready to throw in the towel, eager for one more round.
“I’m not yet ready to move to the next phase of my life,” Garcia said a few weeks ago. “I feel like I have too much to offer from a football player’s standpoint.”
The Gilroy native shared of the upcoming charity bowling event in Morgan Hill his Pass It On Foundation is hosting. However, the charismatic QB also dove into topics of coaching, the NFL playoffs, the unfortunate fallout with the Oakland Raiders and his plans to return to the field next season.
“I know that I still have the same skill that I’ve had over the past three, four years. I don’t feel like my skill has diminished,” Garcia said. “What creates that fire in me to get back out there is seeing all the guys who are playing that shouldn’t be out there. I couldn’t believe how bad the quarterback play was for some teams. It was frustrating for me to watch that from the outside looking in.”
Twelve quarterbacks who had at least 200 pass attempts during the 2009 season had more interceptions than touchdowns. Of those, however, three were rookies, including Mark Sanchez of the Jets, Matthew Stafford of the Lions and Josh Freeman of the Buccaneers.
Once in his 11 NFL seasons has Garcia thrown more picks than touchdowns — the 2005 season with the Detroit Lions — but he only had 102 pass attempts and appeared in eight games.
Garcia holds an 87.5 career passer rating, a number that was higher than 19 of the starting quarterbacks from this past season. He has amassed 25,537 passing yards, rushed for an additional 2,140 and has 187 total touchdowns.
The Browns could have used Garcia on their squad instead of watching Brady Quinn complete 3-yard passes all game long. Even the Niners could have used him, as Alex Smith would have benefited from Garcia’s profound football knowledge.
The age excuse or reasoning or cop-out by NFL owners doesn’t apply to Garcia. He understands what it takes to win, leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the playoffs just two seasons ago. The Bucs have since sunk to last place in the NFC South.
And Garcia isn’t done yet. At least he doesn’t believe he is.
“For a guy who has been a starter throughout his entire career and the fact that I didn’t have that opportunity to be out there this year was very difficult for me,” Garcia said. “And, yeah, I would love nothing more than to have that opportunity, to be a part of a team and positive situation once again.”
The 2009 season for Garcia began with a bang when he returned to his Bay Area roots and signed with the Raiders to back up an ill-prepared JaMarcus Russell — my words, not Garcia’s.
Things began to unravel and frustrations mounted leading to Garcia’s release, however.
“I kind of kick myself now and wish I would have bit my lip and powered through it,” Garcia said. “I just was frustrated and felt like it was a situation I didn’t want to be a part of, especially if it meant the last year of my career. It was bad timing for me to walk away because every other team had their roster set.”
Though he hasn’t specified any teams he would like to be a part of, Garcia is steadfast on making his return next season.
“Hopefully a team will look at me as a guy who can come in and help out a young quarterback and be a positive influence and be a leader and help a team reach success,” Garcia said. “That’s what I want to be a part of.”
