Go ahead and doubt Jeff Garcia. Just about everyone has. I’ll
admit it, I did, too. We met for the first time in August, before
this season started, and I was biting my tongue when talking to him
about joining a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that went 4-12 a year
ago.
Go ahead and doubt Jeff Garcia. Just about everyone has. I’ll admit it, I did, too.
We met for the first time in August, before this season started, and I was biting my tongue when talking to him about joining a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that went 4-12 a year ago.
I may be a loud mouth, but I know how important first impressions can be. I wasn’t going to ruin our first time together by saying I thought the Bucs’ defense was over the hill. Or that I thought his receivers were mediocre and the running backs were too injury-prone. I especially wasn’t going to mention that I thought the offensive line was going to get him killed.
I watched him propel the Philadelphia Eagles into the playoffs last season but hadn’t seen him turn water into wine. He wasn’t a miracle worker.
Or is he?
Leading Tampa Bay to a 9-5 record and an NFC South title this past week, Garcia’s track record shows that the man is a winner, and that he tends to make others winners. Of course he isn’t the kind of guy to take credit for a team effort.
“We’ve gotten great production out of guys that you would have never imagined seeing on the field,” Garcia said by phone Tuesday. “Guys that you’ve never heard of but are playing top-level football. They’re take advantage of opportunities and I can relate to that. I was the guy on the outside trying to break in, trying to get that shot.
“When that opportunity comes, you have to be ready for it. And that’s what these guys have done.”
Garcia’s road less traveled has been well detailed. Overlooked in high school, college and by numerous teams in the professional ranks, he has always been measured by what he can’t do well rather than what he can. Looking at his body of work, however, his less than stellar stints in Cleveland and Detroit seem to say more about those two franchises’ past follies than any flaws in his ability. Sitting at 6-8, it’s unlikely Philadelphia is going to make the playoffs this season, which just goes to show you what a so-called skinny, over-the-hill, weak-armed warrior can do for a franchise if they were to keep him around.
Somebody give Al Davis some smelling-salts so I can get a “Just win, baby!”
Facing the 4-10 San Francisco 49ers this Sunday, the first NFL team to give Garcia a shot, and also the first to give up on him, it will be a reunion of mixed feelings for the Gilroy native.
“It’s exciting for me to be able to come back,” he said. “I’m playing at a high level. I’m feeling like I’m playing at a level if not better than when I was in San Francisco. For me, that’s really what it’s all about.”
But for someone who was thrown out the door despite equaling and at times exceeding statistical totals set by his 49ers predecessors, Joe Montana and Steve Young, Garcia isn’t holding any grudges.
“[Being released] was disappointing at the time. It was disappointing to hear because I always felt like I had loyalty to that team and organization,” he said. “I wasn’t like other players out there, taking more money elsewhere. I really wanted to have my entire career played there in San Francisco. When that time came and the end was there, it was something that wasn’t really easy to deal with, just due to the fact that I didn’t necessarily want to go.
“But those things happen. It’s the nature of the business. You just have to roll with the punches. But it is great for me to come back with an organization that appreciates me playing for them, appreciates my energy, my enthusiasm, my spirit for the game, and that’s really what I’m able to do here with Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Bucs.”
As Gruden and the Bucs have realized, Garcia doesn’t have a run-of-the-mill intensity level. He’s Rudy and Rocky rolled into one.
“I have tremendous confidence in myself and I know there are people that have doubted me from day one, and I’ve used that negativity to fuel my fire,” Garcia said. “It’s a driving force for me to prove people wrong. It’s a never-ending battle. I feel like I’ve always had to deal with those things. It never seems to stop at any point in time, and I try to lean on it to create a certain anger inside of me that wants to find a way to succeed no matter how I have to do it.
“I feel like in many ways I am that scrapper, I am that guy that may take blows left and right, but just keeps coming back at you, just keeps getting back off the canvas and battling you. You’re going to have to basically kill me to get me out of there because I’m not going to stop coming back.”
For all you 49ers fans, try not to throw up in your mouth when thinking about having Garcia at quarterback rather than the Alex Smith/Trent Dilfer/Shaun Hill calamitous combo that has been served up this season. Garcia has been doubted by just about everyone, from the San Francisco front office to several other teams’ management, and always come out looking stronger.
It goes to show you that sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.
Sorry Niners fans. You’ll just have to roll with the punches.
