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Jeff Garcia: How every player should be
By Tony Renteria November 15, 2010 |
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Jeff Garcia came to the United Football League to show the National Football League he could still play at the highest level. Garcia knows that no team is going to try and build a franchise around a 40 year old quarterback, but a maybe team will keep him on as that quality experpericed back up that every young quarterback needs to help learn the game. None gave Garcia that call, so he chooses to play on Saturday nights in a two year old league and on an expansion team as well. He made the choice to go into the lions den one more time. If the season when well and he put enough plays together on film for NFL teams to see, he may get that call. On a night when his Omaha Nighthawks were destroyed by the Hometown Sacramento Mountain Lions by the score of 41-3, Garcia went 11 for 22 with 107 yards. Not nearly the type of game that a four time NFL Pro Bowl Quarterback should have in a “minor league” program. He was battered and hurt. There was a baseball size mouse on this throwing elbow. Here was Northern California golden kid, a scrappy young guy who came from Gilroy and worked his butt of through the Canadian Football League to a star in the NFL. Yet on this night he was old, he was slow and he could see that his football days were in the rearview mirror of his life. After the game the upset and beaten Garcia did not want to speak to the media, he went to the trainer, he took a shower, got dressed and wanted to get on the bus and leave his home state as fast as possible. The Media director asked him to speak to some of the media that hated wanted for him. He came up and simply asked with a smile if we could keep it quick. He answered every question with the professionalism you would expect of a veteran who plays football on Sundays. Even when pressed by one reporter if his time in the game was one he continued to be the epitome of class as he answered the question with grace and patience. When done he turned slowly to the door and headed out to the bus. There were over a hundred fans who waited for Garcia, some dressed in his old Forty-Niner’s jersey, while some just wanting to meet their hero. It happened right then, he smiled, he stood up tall, grabbed a pen and started to sign autographs. He shook hands and exchanged high fives with young children. He put all the pain and hurt in his back pocket and gave back to the fans that had come to see him. Garcia’s days may be coming to an end but the youth of professional football can learn a ton from a quality professional who knows how to conduct himself even in the state of doubt and loss. |
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