When you play great, the media will shower you with praises. When you don't, they may bury you. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo experienced some of the latter this week after his disappointing outing on Monday night against the Denver Broncos.
Garoppolo ended the night 1-of-6 for zero yards and an interception. It was his first in-game action in 11 months since the quarterback suffered a torn ACL on September 23, 2018. There was bound to be some rust, but no one expected Garoppolo to play as poorly as he did. True, it was a small sample size, but that didn't stop the Niner quarterback's play from being the main topic of discussion on Tuesday morning.
Garoppolo has learned to block out the noise, though. There is enough to worry about inside the building, which obviates the need to concern yourself over what is being said outside of it.
"Yeah, throughout my entire football career, there's always going to be that noise and everything, but you just have to block it out," Garoppolo told reporters before Thursday's practice. "We have so much going on in our meetings and the locker room. You're just trying to take all that in that if you start worrying about the outside noise, you've got no chance at being successful. I think it's just staying mentally strong and just doing what we do."
Garoppolo's head coach, Kyle Shanahan, is confident the quarterback can block out the noise.
"He has the ability to do it," Shanahan said. "Jimmy's not a guy who is out all the time and really wanting to read about himself. He's a very humble guy and has the right personality. But, he's also human, too."
Shanahan remembered a time when the outside noise impacted him. It was during his time as the offensive coordinator with the Washington Redskins, where his father, Mike Shanahan, was the head coach.
"I accidentally read a paper one day, and it told me how bad I was, and that was my first job ever, and I only got it because of my dad," Shanahan shared. "I'd like to say that didn't mess me up but it did for a little bit. That's human nature, and you start to learn that stuff and you realize, holy cow, that can affect you, and I'm not going to read that ever again.
"I'm also not going to read it when it tells me how good I am because if it tells me how good I am, then that makes me feel a lot better about myself. Then I'm going to feel that much worse when it tells me how bad I am.
"You do the best you can every week. It's a hard league, and just because you don't have success one week, it does not mean you're not good. It's week in and week out. It changes every week, and the strong people survive in this league.
"You have to have talent. You've got to be a special person. You've got to be a special coach, a special player. Whatever it is, you've got to be a little bit different, but it's not easy, and you've got to work through that."
Luckily for Garoppolo, he won't have to wait long for another chance to redeem himself in the eyes of those creating the outside noise. The 49ers travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday. It will be Garoppolo's last chance to knock off some of the rust before the regular season kicks off on September 8.
Arrowhead Stadium also happens to be where Garoppolo suffered his season-ending injury last year.
"It'll be a good stepping stone," Garoppolo said. "Definitely, it will be a little weird getting back there but just trying to treat it like a normal game."
