Jimmy Garoppolo is on his way out in San Francisco, and we’re beginning to learn about some of the issues the team had with the QB.
According to Mike Silver of the SF Chronicle, Garoppolo ghosted players and coaches in the offseason after signing a massive $137.5 million contract with the team.
The @49ers made Jimmy Garoppolo the league's highest-paid player in 2018 and had a press conference to celebrate it. Then he ghosted them. My latest for the @sfchronicle @SportingGreenSF https://t.co/RbP8LNG3K2
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) August 11, 2022
The San Francisco 49ers, after a stupefying stretch in which three head coaches were fired within a two-year period, finally had some uplifting news to broadcast to the masses in early 2018. They’d just given Jimmy Garoppolo a five-year, $137.5 million contract that carried the highest annual value in NFL history, a conspicuous display of affection to a quarterback who had started just seven career games.
Once he left that press conference, nobody heard from him for weeks and weeks,” recalled one member of that coaching staff. “He didn’t return calls, he didn’t return texts — he basically just vanished. And we were looking at each other going, ‘What just happened?’”
The Jimmy G. Vanishing Act, which would become a staple of subsequent offseasons (last year’s being a glaring exception), is worth pondering as we prepare to dive into the Trey Lance Era, beginning with Friday’s preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers at Levi’s.
It’s currently unclear where Jimmy G will end up as the season rolls around but it appears that he annoyed some of the coaches on the roster with his behavior throughout the years.
