Super Bowl 2024: Brock Purdy has never been a ‘game manager,’ but he might become a champion with the 49ers

They’re laughing in Ames, Iowa, this week. They’re laughing because they’ve seen the best of Brock Purdy at Iowa State. They’ve seen the worst, too. That means, no matter what happens Sunday in Super Bowl XVIII, he’s still theirs.

And that’s so Iowa State. It’s the kind of place that embraces a babyfaced kid from Gilbert, Arizona, almost no one initially recruited, making him one of their own. His 23-15 record as a starter, including a school-record nine-win season and a Fiesta Bowl victory, is a good place to start.

But there’s more. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback met his fiancé in Ames. The toast of Las Vegas this week came back during the 49ers bye week and … fished.  Before he was Mr. Irrelevant — also so Iowa State — Purdy was always going to be a Cyclones legend.

But a “game manager?” That’s personal and borderline derogatory. Purdy is not that. Not in the places that matter most to him this week — Gilbert, Ames and San Francisco. Not the guy who went for five total touchdowns and beat a ranked Oklahoma State team on the road before his first career start. In the same 2018 season he blew up, Purdy was in a battle to be the Cyclones’ third-string QB.

For the second straight season, Purdy led the 49ers in the NFC Championship. This year, they’ve advanced out of it and into the Super Bowl after two much-scrutinized comeback wins against the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.

A narrative emerged then as one of the main (read: annoying) Super Bowl talking points that threatens to cancel what Purdy really is. They’re laughing in Ames mostly because the pundits, podcasters and posers obviously don’t know a game manager from a rack of ribs at Hickory Park.

“I’ve been chuckling at that,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell told CBS Sports, sticking with the theme. “That would be the furthest thing I would label Brock as. I took my whole family out to the Green Bay game. ……

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/super-bowl-2024-brock-purdy-has-never-been-a-game-manager-but-he-might-become-a-champion-with-the-49ers/

Author : Dennis Dodd

Publish date : 2024-02-08 17:16:18

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