When you hear about Jeff Garcia being the first person into work
in the morning and the last one to leave the building, know that
it’s true.
In this video, we talk with Oakland Raiders’ backup quarterback and Gilroy native Jeff Garcia about the upcoming season.
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When you hear about Jeff Garcia being the first person into work in the morning and the last one to leave the building, know that it’s true.
Players, coaches, trainers, waterboys, groundskeepers – everyone had gone to lunch following Tuesday morning’s Oakland Raiders training camp practice in Napa before Garcia emerged from the locker room.
Having just spent the better part of a two-hour practice in sweatpants, a ballcap and a red jersey, signifying he was not to be touched – as if being the only player not wearing pads wasn’t enough of an indication – Garcia spent most of his lunch break doing core exercises and trying to strengthen a calf injury he sustained while doing extra conditioning work after a practice last week.
In what should be an exciting time for the Gilroy native, who recently celebrated the birth of his second child and has returned to the Bay Area to help resurrect a franchise that has been the worst in the NFL over the past six seasons, the mood was decidedly somber.
“Extremely disappointing,” Garcia said about being held out of practices to recuperate. “My teammates are out here working their tails off and I can’t join in the activity. It’s not something that you ever want to have happen. Fortunately, it comes at a time at the beginning of training camp where I can recover in a short period of time and be back out there and be able to get as much work as I need to get.”
The severity of the injury, which is similar to the one that held Garcia out of much of the preseason last year, is unclear. Garcia said it shouldn’t hold him out of practice past this week.
But at 39 years old, he realizes this could be his last season, which is why any time away from the game is all the more disappointing.
“What’s frustrating is that I came into camp in what I felt was great shape and have done plenty of drills that were more intense than what I was going through in the first few days here out at camp,” he said, “and to have that happen, it’s just bad timing, it’s just bad luck, but I think I’ll overcome it.”
Overcoming is a word that is almost a cliche in Garcia’s case. The quarterback has gotten the most out of his body, deemed by many scouts, talent evaluators, general managers and coaches to be inadequate for the NFL. Four Pro Bowls beg to differ.
Despite standing off to the side in practice, Garcia’s role on a young, untested Raiders squad hasn’t gone unnoticed. Along with being possibly the most capable backup quarterback in the league when called upon – Garcia is slated to be the No. 2 behind franchise quarterback and former No. 1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell – a 10-year career filled with more ups than downs, against every defense imaginable, allows the veteran signal-caller, whose gray hair has turned a lighter shade of white, to impart knowledge to anyone willing to listen.
“He knows the game of football first of all,” said running back Darren McFadden, who is expected to become one of the league’s premiere playmakers in his second season. “He’ll come over to the sideline and talk to you about something he sees. I might have a ‘go’ route and he’ll tell me to get down in a certain situation.”
McFadden thinks the understanding of the game will only help Russell, who has had a rocky first couple of seasons but finished last year strong.
“The experience is always helping,” McFadden said. “JaMarcus is a young guy, so it’s always going to help.”
Garcia concurs with that sentiment.
“We’re still at that point where there’s not enough experience that has been here for any length of time,” he said. “There hasn’t been the experience of winning in a long time and, so, those are things that we’re all trying to feel out, and create an atmosphere where we’re all dependable on each other and accountable for yourself and your own actions.”
Whether it’s wise words to a teammate or setting an example for others, Garcia’s presence on a team looking to return to the glory of yesteryear certainly can’t hurt.
