The legend of Brock "pump fake" Purdy
Brock Purdy has had a lot of nicknames in his career but he may develop a new one if he can guide the San Francisco 49ers deep into the playoffs.
They like to call the last pick of the NFL draft in a given year “Mr. Irrelevant.”
It’s not so great to be picked last in the draft. You still get the benefit of a four-year contract and a better signing bonus than an undrafted free agent BUT you don’t get to choose your team like an undrafted player can (to some extent). Historically the last pick in the draft doesn’t amount to much.
Even though Brock Purdy was instrumental in putting Matt Campbell and Iowa State on the map in college football, he was starting to get looked down upon in the Big 12 sphere. He threw several interceptions in the 2020 Big 12 Championship and then came back in 2021 with most of his teammates only to fall to 7-6, fail to ever beat rival Iowa, and end his career with a game-losing turnover against Clemson in the Cheez-it bowl.
I’ve noticed none of that really matters to NFL people who watched him lead a playoff-caliber San Francisco 49er’s team to a beatdown of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his first ever NFL start. Bill Simmons gave a long introduction to Purdy to Cousin Sal on his podcast a week ago that basically went:
His junior year was thwarted by mononucleosis.
He blew up his senior year and had offers from even the likes of Alabama but stayed true to Iowa State.
He stayed with humble Iowa State and started there for four years, nearly taking them to a Big 12 Championship.
When you get used to a team and a player in the college world, these contextual points can be easily lost where a 1,000-foot view from an NFL fan will see the obvious markers of quality in Purdy’s career resume. Around the Big 12 there was a lot of, “yeah he’s fun but he makes mistakes in big games every year and keeps coming up short.”
The context of him being at Iowa State, who didn’t do a great deal before him and got right back to it after he left, is largely lost.
As it happens, I’ve been all over the Purdy story from his first appearance in college and for anyone interested, am prepared to give an account of his college career and what lead to this moment where he’s poised to try and guide a big market franchise to the Super Bowl.
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