Will Brock Purdy’s Cinderella Story Have a Storybook Super Bowl Ending?
Getty Images. Pictured: Brock Purdy
The scene opens.
It's a hot, windy night in Arizona, fall of 2017. A young, fresh-faced teenager named Brock takes the football field, down 48-42 in the 6A Division AIA State Championship.
Against all odds, Brock and his team are back in the championship game playing for a high school opened not 10 years prior. The Pumas had lost the title game 65-28 the previous year but were back with a chance for redemption against the same opponent.
But it wasn't meant to be.
Brock and his teammates came up short again, and you wonder if a 17-year-old Brock Purdy figured he'd competed for a championship for the final time there on that field.
Purdy came from an athletic family. His dad played Minor League baseball for eight years. His sister was a collegiate softball player, and his brother was recruited to Florida State as a dual-threat QB. He won several quarterback awards but was not a hot recruit out of a high school. He was considered a three-star prospect, a bit undersized at 6-foot-1, and he enrolled at a similarly overlooked college football program with Iowa State, where he'd begin as a third-string freshman.
But as has happened so often in Purdy's life, he worked his way quickly to the top. By the end of his freshman season, Purdy had wrested control of the job. He helped the Cyclones rebound from a 1-3 start to finish 7-1 and earn a trip to the Alamo Bowl, the best regular season at Iowa State since the turn of the century.
Purdy went on to lead his team to four consecutive winning seasons, the first Iowa State quarterback to do so in nearly a century.
But despite all his success in high school and college, Purdy was overlooked in the draft process. He wasn't even the guy all the scouts came to see.
For two seasons, scout after NFL scout traveled to Ames, Iowa, to get eyes on Purdy's flashy running back teammate Breece Hall. They watched Purdy make winning play after winning play — and continued to ignore him anyway, much like everyone else always had.
The Athletic's scouting report on Purdy didn't mince words: "Not a very good athlete. Limited arm, both in strength and throw repertoire." Few expected Purdy to be drafted.
He was, of course — barely.
Nobody watches the NFL Draft all the way until the final pick, not unless they bet Offense or Defense for Mr. Irrelevant.
The deputy commissioner reads one final name, a goofy three-digit jersey gets held up for a player that obviously didn't make the trip to the draft site, and an unknown player celebrates with a few friends and family at a private home party before being cut quietly a few months later, never to be heard from again.
"Brock Purdy."
Purdy overcame the odds and made San Francisco's roster, but like usual, he was an afterthought.
After all, the 49ers already had two marquee QBs on the roster. Jimmy Garoppolo had gone 13-3 and led San Francisco to the Super Bowl his last healthy season, and the team had traded a windfall to move up to No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft and select heralded QB Trey Lance.
What did the 49ers give up for Lance? The No. 12 pick they traded that year turned into Micah Parsons. They traded their next two firsts, too. The Dolphins used one of those picks to acquire Tyreek Hill and the other on Bradley Chubb.
Imagine adding Parsons, Hill and Chubb to this 49ers roster. That's what San Francisco had invested in Lance.
And then there was Brock Purdy, the backup to the backup.
Lest you need a reminder of how dire things typically tend to get with backup quarterbacks, just take a glance around the NFL this season.
Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall and Joshua Dobbs buried Minnesota's season. Jake Browning was unable to save Cincinnati's campaign. P.J. Walker and Dorian Thompson-Robinson failed so spectacularly that the Browns coaxed a 38-year-old off his retirement couch. Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle were New York Post punchlines.
None of that is anomalous for backup NFL quarterbacks, let alone third stringers. They're not supposed to get in the game. They're supposed to hold the clipboard on the sidelines, grab the star a water bottle and pretend to play like Lamar Jackson on the scout team.
Purdy took his first NFL snap in Week 5 his rookie season — a kneeldown in place of Garoppolo, with Trey Lance already out for the season.
Two weeks later, Purdy got to play some actual ball. With Garoppolo out in a 44-23 blowout loss, Purdy got a garbage time drive. He completed his first pass for 20 yards, then led the 49ers for three more first downs before throwing an interception in the end zone to end in ignominy.
The opponent that day? The Kansas City Chiefs.
You'll have to forgive 49ers fans if they wondered if the season was over on December 4, when Garoppolo went out injured again four passes into the game. San Francisco kicked a pyrrhic field goal to cut a Miami lead to 7-3, but if that injury was significant, it looked like curtains on San Francisco's season with only Purdy left at QB.
Instead, Purdy led the 49ers to a touchdown on his first drive, then led a two-minute drive for a second TD pass four seconds before halftime as San Francisco took the lead and never relinquished. Purdy finished 25-of-37 with 210 yards and two scores.
The next week, the 49ers dominated the Bucs in Purdy's first NFL start. A week later, they won in Seattle in Purdy's first road test on a Thursday night in front of one of the most raucous crowds in sports.
Two weeks later, Purdy faced his first real adversity on New Year's Day. It was a tie game with four minutes left against the lowly Raiders as fans wondered if clock might have struck midnight on Purdy as the calendar turned to a new year. But Purdy led a go-ahead TD drive, watched his defense give up a tying score, then led another drive down the field for a winning field goal attempt.
The kick missed, but the 49ers won in overtime anyway, and Purdy had proven he was the real deal.
Another matchup with Seattle awaited as the playoffs kicked off, and Purdy passed the test with flying colors as the 49ers won easily. The next game was a defensive battle. Purdy wasn't spectacular but he was good enough. He led a go-ahead TD drive in the fourth quarter to break a tie, then another drive to tack on a field goal and put the Cowboys away.
And so, here was Brock Purdy, playing Philadelphia for the NFC Championship and a storybook trip to the Super Bowl, just one win away.
This was it. This was Purdy's Cinderella moment.
Until it wasn't.
On the first 49ers drive, Purdy was sacked by Haason Reddick at the 50. He fumbled and landed hard on his throwing arm, leaving the game hurt.
It was a right elbow injury, and it turned out to be a big one. Purdy had torn his ulnar collateral ligament on his throwing arm. He couldn't throw more than 10 yards. Incredibly, he came back into the game.
San Francisco fourth-stringer Josh Johnson got hurt, too, leaving the team literally QB-less playing for the Super Bowl. Purdy courageously came back, risking further injury, and finished the game, even completing a couple passes as the 49ers were blown out by the Eagles, 31-7.
It wouldn't have surprised anyone if that was the end of the Brock Purdy story.
After all, the 49ers still had a Super Bowl QB on the roster in Garoppolo, along with a healthy returning Lance, in whom they'd invested so much. Lance was a sleeper MVP bet 12 months ago for the 49ers — I bet him myself! — and there were rumors of a move for Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers.
Surely it wouldn't be Mr. Irrelevant, coming off a UCL tear, unlikely to even be healthy for the start of training camp. Not with a loaded, Super Bowl-ready roster in need of just competent QB play.
It was unclear if Purdy could even throw a football as recently as July — remind me why this incredible story wasn't good enough to get Purdy so much as a sniff for Comeback Player of the Year? — but the 49ers were confident. They traded Lance and let Garoppolo go, heading into the season with Purdy and no backup plan.
And as he'd done his entire life, Purdy exceeded expectations.
He set the franchise record for passing yards for a franchise where Joe Montana and Steve Young once played, finishing top five in passing yards and TDs and earning a Pro Bowl berth.
The 49ers started 5-0, flying high with 30+ points in each of their first five games. But they lost their next three as Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams got hurt, and it certainly looked like Purdy might have been playing through injury, too.
The 49ers headed into their bye week wounded at 5-3 but got healthy and won their next six. Heading into Christmas, the Niners were scorching hot. The team had still never lost a single game with Purdy, Samuel, Williams and Christian McCaffrey all healthy. Purdy was lapping the league in just about every advanced QB metric and was the deserving odds-on MVP favorite.
Then, disaster, once again seeming to strike midnight on Purdy's Cinderella story.
Against the Ravens, Purdy threw an interception in the end zone on his opening drive. He was picked again to open the second quarter, then again the following drive. A fourth interception to start the fourth quarter ended San Francisco's night and left Purdy's MVP campaign in shambles.
But for Purdy, it was just one more adverse step along his journey.
The 49ers bounced back the following week and locked up the 1-seed. They overcame a shaky start to the postseason as Purdy led a come-from-behind fourth-quarter victory against the Packers with the season on the line.
Just like he'd been in high school seven years earlier, Purdy was back in a championship game with a chance at revenge. And this time, he finished the job.
Down 24-7 at the half, it looked like Purdy was buried again. And again, he fought back.
In the second half, Purdy became the first QB to throw for 150+ yards and 80% completion rate while running for 45+ yards and 10+ YPC without a turnover in any half of football, regular or postseason, in at least three decades, per Opta Stats.
Purdy led the 49ers to five consecutive scoring drives with everything on the line before kneeling to close things out in victory. He repeatedly made game-changing plays with both his arm and his legs, something presumed MVP Lamar Jackson failed to do a few hours earlier, winning a game for the second straight week that the 49ers never would have won under Garoppolo.
His signature play came on third down with under five minutes left, up three at the Detroit 49 with a potential punt looming. Instead, Purdy took matters into his own hands, escaped the pocket, and scrambled for 21 yards to put San Francisco into scoring range. Two plays later, the 49ers were in the end zone and the game was effectively over.
Now, Purdy and the 49ers are headed to the Super Bowl.
Because this whole thing is one long movie script — and who would even believe the movie at this point?! — there was only ever one quarterback Purdy could face there.
Patrick Mahomes looks well on his way to GOAT status. Through 17 playoff games, the length of a season, Mahomes has thrown for 4,802 yards, 39 TDs and just seven interceptions. Mahomes has effectively put together a career MVP campaign against the best of the best in the postseason.
Six straight AFC Championship Games? Four Super Bowls in six? Sounds like the new Tom Brady to me.
Brady doesn't lose to Brock Purdy, not in the Super Bowl … right?
Of course not.
Brady would never lose to Nick Foles in the Super Bowl. He'd never lose to Eli Manning. Twice.
Sometimes Cinderella strikes when we least expect.
There are other big QB upsets sprinkled throughout Super Bowl history — Jeff Hostetler over Jim Kelly comes to mind — but I can't help but think of another one back in 2002.
Kurt Warner was the two-time MVP. He had already won the Super Bowl, and he'd barely lost his entire career with a record including the postseason of 40 wins and just nine losses, a career 82% win rate that ranks even ahead of Mahomes 75-19 (80%) or Brady 286-95 (75%).
Warner was the best player in football, and the Rams were virtually unstoppable, The Greatest Show on Turf. His opponent? A quarterback who was never supposed to be there.
A forgotten fella by the name of Tom Brady, a sophomore sixth-round pick who had started the year as a backup before being forced into action when Drew Bledsoe went out injured.
Brady had started just 16 NFL games, including the postseason. He'd thrown 18 touchdown passes, none of them in either Patriots' playoff win. Neither win was particularly pretty.
The Patriots trailed 13-3 in the fourth quarter of the playoff opener before Brady ran for a TD, then used the Tuck Rule to set up a tying field goal before winning in overtime. The following game, Brady left hurt before halftime and was replaced by Bledsoe, who led the team to victory in Pittsburgh.
Many wondered at the time if Brady's miracle Cinderella run might finally be over.
The rest, as they say, is history.
So is Purdy facing the next Brady — or is he the next Brady?
It's a wild, unbelievable story. It's a movie script that would be rejected for being too unrealistic.
And still, detractors continue to doubt Purdy.
After all he's done, after all he's overcome and proven, after all the hurdles Purdy has continued to leap and obstacles overcome, there are still doubters.
Many remain too attached to their early judgment of Purdy. They're fixated on that No. 262 Mr. Irrelevant jersey, on how Purdy came up short in last year's Super Bowl run, on that Christmas night failure against the Ravens.
Too many people would rather be right about Purdy than appreciate what he's become and the incredible Cinderella story unfolding right before our eyes.
But how does that story end on Sunday?
Is this the final crowning achievement in the next great sports movie of our lifetime? Or is it just the latest setback in a career filled with them?
Not every Cinderella movie ends in victory.
Friday Night Lights. Moneyball. Cool Runnings.
Rocky.
Sometimes, the clock strikes midnight — even on Cinderella.
Tie game, two minutes left in Vegas, season on the line.
No timeouts left. Mahomes watches from the sidelines. Kansas City's much ballyhooed defense is on the field. Christian McCaffrey is cramped in the locker room.
It's all on Purdy now.
He takes the snap, evades a rusher, rolls right. A million moments flash through his mind as cameras pop around Allegiant Stadium.
Purdy spots a sliver in the Chiefs defense.
He cocks his arm, steps into it and releases the throw of his life.
Fade to black.
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