Scott Ostler:
Garoppolo says the 49ers didn’t need saving.
LOS ANGELES — Jimmy Garoppolo is the best quarterback ever. Period.
We all can agree on that, right?
There have been good quarterbacks. Tom Brady, Sammy Baugh, Joe Montana. None like this one, though.
But why compare Garoppolo with quarterbacks? Because we’re next door to Hollywood, let’s go show-biz. Garoppolo is football’s Lana Turner.
Turner was a film superstar of the ’40s and ’50s. She was famously discovered in 1936, as a 16-year-old junior at Hollywood High, when she cut school and was sipping a soda at the Top Hat Malt Shop on Sunset Boulevard. Within a year, she was starring in movies, soon to be the glamour queen of her era.
Garoppolo’s rise is even more out-of-nowhere. We knew he had potential, from his time as Brady’s understudy in New England. But he was dumped onto an 0-9 team that featured less talent than a high school production of “Brigadoon,” and he led it to a 5-0 finish, including Sunday’s 34-13 win over the Rams’ JV squad.
The story line should be that Garoppolo lifted the 49ers instantly, to a new level, gave them a reason to live. But the way he explained it after Sunday’s game, it was kind of the opposite. The 49ers picked him up, like an orphan being adopted by loving millionaires.
“To be honest, when I first got here, I didn’t think they had a losing mentality,” he said. “Honestly, they came into work every day with a positive attitude, guys were grinding, and that kind of gave me some hope, when I first got here. These guys didn’t look at themselves as an 0-9 team.”
Garoppolo comes off as an honest but understated fellow. This was the most effusive he has been publicly about his new team. He and the 49ers have bonded faster than Super Glue.
“I think it was just a good match between myself and the 49ers,” Garoppolo said. “I think it was kind of a perfect match, and it just happened at the right time, and good things are coming from it.”
There is a drop of truth to Garoppolo’s feeling that the 49ers rescued him, rather than vice versa. His old head coach, Bill Belichick, unloaded Garoppolo for a measly second-round draft pick, and sent him to a team that has been slipping on banana peels for the past four seasons.
Everyone knew Garoppolo had potential, but he had been cast out of the Patriots’ family and exiled to Loserville.
What happened once Garappolo trotted into the 49ers’ huddle, dimples blazing, is crazy.
Try to think of another athlete who had this type of instant impact. You could say Montana, but when he arrived, he lost six of his first eight starts. It wasn’t until the likes of Ronnie Lott and Fred Dean joined him that things started cookin’.
Buster Posey? That’s a good comparison, but Posey joined a team that likewise had some up-and-coming players, like Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner.
Stephen Curry? Not close. Took him a while to take control of that franchise and to be afforded an opportunity to do what he does.
I submit that, in the Bay Area at least, no one athlete has made such an instant impact as Garoppolo. And expanding the discussion nationwide, you might have to go back to Babe Ruth joining the Yankees.
Sure, we’re getting carried
“They came into work every day with a positive attitude, guys were grinding, and that kind of gave me some hope.” Jimmy Garoppolo, on his first impression of the 49ers
away here, we’re going Garoppoloco, but the man does a killer impersonation of a great quarterback. He doesn’t hit receivers, he hits receiver’s specific body parts. He doesn’t lead the huddle, he elevates it.
He could fool the media, but he can’t fool Joe Staley, an 11year player. Staley, who can’t afford to wait five years for a franchise rebuild, seems convinced that Garoppolo is for real. Do we know more than Staley? No, and he said Sunday that Garoppolo has the perfect combination of fire and ice.
Sunday wasn’t a great test, because the Rams rested 17 starters, which is impressive even to Gregg Popovich. But Garoppolo was just so cool. No sacks, he danced in and out of the pocket, he followed bad plays with great ones.
Here’s a legit comparison: Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan could be the new Montana and Bill Walsh, a perfect combo. Those two set the bar sky-high, but Shanahan could be a great offensive innovator/play-caller, and Garoppolo, in two months, has earned a master’s degree in Shanahan’s playbook.
I asked Garoppolo if he would spend the offseason studying Shanahan’s playbook seven days a week.
“I might take a break for a couple of days, you know?” he said with a smile. “I’ll get back to Chicago and see my family for a little bit. I train in L.A., usually, so I’m sure I’ll be bouncing between L.A. and San Fran. But haven’t really thought that far ahead.”
Just keep Garoppolo out of the Top Hat Malt Shop. The 49ers can’t afford to compete with Hollywood money. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler