Jimmy Garoppolo signed a massive contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers back in 2017, but a recent report claims he did not exactly show the franchise that the new deal motivated him to work harder than ever.
A coach who was with the Niners during the 2017 offseason told Michael Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle that Garoppolo essentially ghosted the team after he signed his five-year, $137.5 million deal. The 49ers announced the deal in a press conference with Garoppolo, and it was supposedly weeks until they heard from him after that.
“Once he left that press conference, nobody heard from him for weeks and weeks,” the coach told Silver. “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?’”
Garoppolo is said to have acted that way every offseason after he signed his extension, which at the time paid him a higher annual salary than any player in NFL history. It was not until last offseason that Jimmy G. became more attentive. Silver described it as a “glaring exception,” and one has to wonder if the change in attitude had anything to do with the Niners trading up to draft Trey Lance.
Silver’s story made Rob Guerrera of Niners Nation think of something George Kittle said at the Super Bowl two years ago. The star tight end ribbed Garoppolo in a lighthearted press conference and told the media Jimmy G. is “the worst texter of all time.” Kittle said there were times where he’d text Garoppolo asking him a question about the playbook and Garoppolo would leave him “on read” and not respond. That usually means the person has read receipts on and you can see that they opened the message.
Kittle calls out Jimmy’s texting skills 😂
(➡️ @NFLonFOX) pic.twitter.com/pxnF49cepp
— NBC Sports Bay Area & CA (@NBCSAuthentic) January 28, 2020
Those remarks seem a bit more noteworthy now.
Garoppolo has a great record and has led the Niners to two NFC Championships and a Super Bowl. Despite that, the team never seemed to fully believe in him. Perhaps he has been spending parts of his offseason with Giovanni Carmazzi.
