Goodwin thankful for outpouring of support
Says wife, faith got him through game following baby tragedy
SANTA CLARA >> Marquise Goodwin credited his wife, Morgan, and their faith in God for getting him through the 49ers’ game Sunday, only hours after the couple lost their son due to pregnancy complications.
“I mentally and physically was not prepared to go through the game at all,” Goodwin said Tuesday in a conference call with Bay Area media. “I wasn’t really in it because I had just lost my baby.”
With great sorrow and deep emotion coming through in his words, Goodwin thanked the outpouring of support he’s received, and he deflected much of the praise to his wife.
“She felt God moved her for allowing me to go play, and she encouraged me, raised my spirits and helped me get ready for the game,” Goodwin added. “That’s what’s so cool about the situation is my wife, how supportive and encouraging she is. All these great things she does for me, to help me go play the way I did. It speaks more about her
character than mine.”
The Goodwins are spending the 49ers bye week with family members in Texas, where he and his wife were University of Texas track stars.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of support from people of all different communities,” Goodwin said. “Morgan and I appreciate all the love that we’ve gotten. Didn’t realize sharing our journey with this baby would gain so many people.
“We do have a lot of people that are, I guess, following us through our journey. So we can maybe help people who’ve dealt with similar things that we have gone through or learn things from people who’ve been through our situation.”
Goodwin’s first touchdown catch of the season, an 83-yard showcase in the second quarter, helped spark the previously winless 49ers to a 31-21 victory over the visiting New York Giants.
In a season where touchdown
celebrations are choreographed to humanize and glamorize an embattled sport, none so far througout the NFL may have been more dramatic or meaningful than Goodwin’s, in which he knelt in the end zone and pointed the football skyward before teammates surrounded and helped lift him.
“I just felt like it was all God in that situation (that) I was able to score a touchdown,” Goodwin said. “And all the pain I was feeling at the time came over me at once.”
Goodwin went straight from the hospital Sunday morning to a team breakfast, where safety Eric Reid recognized something was amiss with his friend, who was in sweats rather than his more typical, fashionable attire for a game. Goodwin shared with Reid the tragic news, as well as fellow wide receivers and safety Adrian Colbert, a cousin.
Coach Kyle Shanahan was kept abreast of the Goodwins’ pre-labor complications throughout Saturday and Sunday morning.
“By the time I was able
to talk to Marquise, he was hurting, but he was adamant he wanted to play,” Shanahan said Monday. “That’s something as a coach you respect. You don’t want someone just to tell it to you because that’s what you want to hear as a coach. You want someone to tell it to you because they mean it. And you could tell ’Quise meant it. And he helped us out a lot.”
Quarterback C.J. Beathard did not learn until after the game about Goodwin’s personal tragedy.
“There are a lot of guys in that situation who would not have been able to do that. He showed a lot to us, the tough guy that he is,” Beathard said Monday on The 49ers Insider Podcast with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.
“Our prayers have been with him and his family,” Beathard added. “I can’t even imagine going through that. He’s just a genuine dude, and it was awesome to have him have that big touchdown.”
Goodwin, who turns 27 on Sunday, offered advice on his call to others facing personal tragedies: “Never stop believing.
The reward will last longer than the pain.”
In starting all 10 games this season, Goodwin already has totaled a career-high 500 yards on 23 receptions. He also had a career-long 18-yard run Sunday and provided a key block on Garrett Celek’s go-ahead touchdown reception.
Goodwin was among seven free agents the 49ers introduced on March 10. He signed a two-year, $6 million contract after playing his first four seasons with the Buffalo Bills.
• Colbert had surgery Tuesday on his fractured thumb and is considered questionable for the 49ers next game, Nov. 26 against the Seattle Seahawks.
The rookie safety played all 66 defensive snaps Sunday despite sustaining his injury in the first quarter.
• Left tackle Joe Staley is again the 49ers’ nominee for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award.
Former teammate Frank Gore won the award last season, and this year’s other nominees include ex-49ers Alex Smith (Kansas City) and Vernon Davis (Washington).