Before Brock Purdy helped lead the 49ers to an NFC Championship berth this season, team brass apparently envisioned a run with a certain hometown hero under center.
In a recent interview with ESPN, the former “Mr. Irrelevant” — who guided the 49ers to the NFC title game last January as a seventh-round rookie — detailed an early offseason conversation with head coach Kyle Shanahan, who said Purdy, 24, would be QB1 unless California native Tom Brady wanted to play for his childhood team.
“That meant so much to me,” Purdy said. “I remember him saying, if we can get Tom Brady, we’re going to try to get him. And I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s the GOAT. I get it.’ But something deep down inside me was sort of like, ‘Dude, I just showed you that I can play well in this system. And we were one game away from the Super Bowl.’ … More than anything, I was like, ‘OK, now let’s go.'”
Purdy, the 262nd overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, became an NFL sensation last season after taking the reins for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo down the stretch.
The fairy tale came to an abrupt halt in the 2023 NFC title game when Purdy suffered an elbow injury in the first half against Philadelphia, with the Eagles eventually punching their tickets to the Super Bowl with a 31-7 win.
Purdy underwent Tommy John surgery in the offseason, leading to questions if he would be healthy for the start of the season.
During training camp this past summer, Shanahan joked Purdy “would have to melt in practice to lose [the starting quarterback job].”
Purdy struggled at times this season, including Saturday’s rainy divisional-round win over the Packers.
“The weather, that’s football, you got to overcome that,’’ said Purdy, who went 23-for-39 with 252 yards and a touchdown.
“After a while I got into a rhythm. That’s on me. Overall we got to find a way to win and we made it work.”
Purdy, who has thrown 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions through 16 regular-season games, is now gearing up to host Jared Goff and the Lions on Sunday in the NFC Championship game.
As for Brady, the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback retired “for good” last February after 23 seasons, which included seven Super Bowl wins.
Brady, perhaps jokingly, said on New Year’s Eve in an Instagram post reflecting on 2023 that he “was about to unretire” in May before friends threw him a retirement party.
The 46-year-old is set to slide into Fox’s top NFL booth this coming fall as an analyst.