Jimmy’s G force
BRADY UNDERSTUDY IS NOW THE MASTER OF 49ers BOWL DESTINY BAIRSTOW: WE NEED TO STEP UP TO STAY ON TOP
he insisted victory last summer has put them at the top of every teams’ hit-list from now until India in 2023, demanding improvement.
“It’s lovely being World Champions but at the same time now you have got a title on your head that makes people, even more so now, want to beat you,” he said.
“It’s part and parcel of where we are now and we have to think about how we
TOM BRADY has dominated recent Super Bowl history, appearing in four of the last five.
Tonight it is the turn of his former understudy to step out of the shadows and claim his own place in football folklore.
Where Rocky Balboa was once the Italian Stallion, Jimmy Garoppolo is now front and centre as the Italian Stud.
And the quarterback with the movie-star good looks is on a mission to lead San Francisco to their first Super Bowl triumph in a 25 years in the same stadium where the 49ers were last crowned NFL champs.
But to do so, Jimmy G as he is known, will have to out-duel Patrick Mahomes, the game’s hottest young quarterback, who is on his own mission to deliver a first title in 50 years for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Garoppolo said: “Pat has just about everything. He is a fun evolve as players to try to get into the best possible shape to move forward in this series, the next one and those going forward over the next period.
“Everyone is going to come hard at us, South Africa to start, then all the way through whoever we are playing are going to want to beat us.
“I believe we can get better over the next few years but it is about pinpointing areas you can evolve in different guy to watch. Their offence is pretty extravagant, the speed they play with, and he is the guy that makes it go. The way he does it, the no-look passes, all that sort of stuff, it’s impressive.”
Mahomes is just 24 and on course to sign the first $200million contract when his new deal is negotiated this year or next.
But at 28 Garoppolo has one advantage – education while with Brady and the Patriots, where he won two Super Bowls but never got off the bench.
Garoppolo said: “When I got traded here, their record was not very good but you could tell there was still a confidence about the place and that is what we have had all year.
“It’s a very confident team but a team that has put in the work to be confident.
“I didn’t have frustration in New England. I had won two Super Bowls there so I was pretty happy.
“It wasn’t a bad start to the career. I was really glad with everything I had learned there and the people I had learned from.
“But you get to a point where you want to be the starter and be out there playing.
“I thank everyone in New England for what they did for me but this 49ers team is a story of its own.” conditions.” England’s final warm-up match became contrived practice yesterday.
Having posted 346-7 – England had South Africa Invitational XI 103-3 before reframing the chase to a 10 over run chase of 85.
Leg spinner Matt Parkinson took three wickets in five balls to rock the hosts but a sloppy seam bowling display allowed South Africa to hit the revised total with two balls to spare.