Ex-Eagles QB Jeff Garcia embarrasses self in Jimmy Garoppolo debate

Jeff Garcia embarrasses himself with sad Garoppolo take originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Former Eagles QB and aging retired football player Jeff Garcia went out of his way on Wednesday night to make himself look, and sound, like a bitter old man.

Garcia took to Instagram to comment on a post depicting ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes’ opinion that 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is maybe not a very good quarterback, despite the 49ers’ playoff success wit him as their QB.

It’s really not a very bold take – Garoppolo’s own franchise drafted his replacement last spring while he’s still on a pricey contract, and his very middling numbers speak for themselves – but apparently Garcia, who of course played for the 49ers himself before landing in Philly as a backup QB, disagreed with her analysis.

READ: What happened to Doug Pederson’s head coaching hopes?

Here is Garcia’s now-deleted rebuttal of Kimes’ assessment, saved for posterity because the Internet is forever:

First off, the dude needs to relax. High blood pressure, things of that nature.

Beyond that, though, Garcia’s argument is full of logical holes and is spliced with sexism.

The idea that a person – of any gender identity – wouldn’t be able to understand football if they hadn’t also played it is one that many players, current and former, fall back on to defend their arguments. But as anyone with half a brain understands, it doesn’t take firsthand experience in a huddle to understand that Nathan Peterman was a miserable quarterback, and it’s also not required to explain why Garoppolo, while not necessarily awful, is not a *good* QB.

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In 15 games this year, Garoppolo threw 20 TDs to 12 INTs, an uninspiring ratio. His career postseason numbers are beyond bad – they’re harrowing. Despite head coach Kyle Shanahan actively scheming around his QB (remember when the Niners threw the ball just six times in a conference championship game?) Garoppolo has managed to throw five interceptions to just two touchdowns in five starts. For a QB who takes few risks and is regularly asked to make easy plays, his completion percentage is just 62.7%.

And in San Francisco’s two playoff wins this year, Garoppolo has completed 61% of his passes for zero touchdowns and two interceptions while averaging 6.88 yards per attempt.

These are all numbers of a quarterback who is not good.

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Then you add on the number of times you’ve heard a woman in sports attacked for never having played the game vs. the number of times you’ve heard a man in sports receive the same accusation, and you’ve got a one-two punch of detestable takes from Garcia.

Kimes responded to Garcia’s criticism on Twitter on Thursday, even though she shouldn’t have to. Her argument is unassailable, and his is both non-sensical and mean-spirited.

It’s disappointing to watch, in an era of unprecedented statistical analysis and technology, a legion of football fans not just ignore the data but actively attack it and the people who utilize it. It’d be one thing if Garcia simply said, “I don’t care what the numbers say, Garoppolo wins games.” He would still sound out of touch with reality, but that would be his opinion – and he’d be right! But here he’s going out of his way to be a curmudgeon whose opinion doesn’t align with the facts of the game, and he comes off as a small, sad person to boot.

What a shame.

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