As a garlic capital resident and Dispatch sports editor, I take
exception to San Jose Mercury News Columnist Skip Bayless’ Sunday
piece titled
”
49ers need to be bold, ax Garcia.
”
As a garlic capital resident and Dispatch sports editor, I take exception to San Jose Mercury News Columnist Skip Bayless’ Sunday piece titled “49ers need to be bold, ax Garcia.”
First and foremost, and with all due respect, Mr. Bayless needs to know that Gilroy is not just some obscure street in San Francisco.
Bayless began his column with, “To get to Candlestick Park’s Gate B, you’re routed around the stadium and up a steep street called Gilroy. If you’re driving a stick-shift, getting stuck in a line of cars waiting to turn left at the top of Gilroy can mean treacherous wear and tear on your clutch and nerves.”
He must know that Gilroy also is a beautiful city in south Santa Clara County, known worldwide for its annual Garlic Festival.
Sure, there are some streets that need improvement in Gilroy, where Mr. Bayless may tear up his clutch. But there’s a lot more to it, like caring, courteous citizens who have unconditional support for each other.
Bayless continues to talk about the street rather than the city, stating, “This uphill battle has started reminding me of 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia, favorite son of the town a couple of hours south of Candlestick that shares this street’s name.”
While Bayless decides to refer to Garcia as little more than a San Francisco side street with rolling up and downs, I prefer to think of him more like the city he hails from than the street that bears its name. He’s a typical Gilroyan in one sense – he’s a caring person – and an extroadinary one in another – he made it to the pros.
When a couple could not afford air fare to Washington, D.C., to go see their son, a military man who was injured during the war in Iraq last year, the community came together and raised the money for them. That is just one of many instances of kind gestures made by Gilroyans.
Jeff Garcia bleeds and sweats garlic.
While it could have been easy for him to forget about his roots, Garcia is proud of where he came from – whether it’s marketable or not. He comes back to his hometown to read to students and promote literacy. He heads up the Latino Scholarship Fund. He uses his status to establish an annual golf tournament that gave thousands to the Gilroy High and Gavilan College football programs in its first year.
The garlic slinger’s DUI arrest last week sent shockwaves through our little hamlet. Although that behaviour is never condoned, Garcia is only human. He’s allowed to make mistakes just like everyone else, and he should be given a second chance. He promptly made a heartfelt apology during a press conference the day he was released. That fits with his true character, and Garcia surely will turn this negative into a positive, learning a life lesson and braving the consequences.
It’s easy to kick a man when he’s down, and that is what Mr. Bayless did when he wrote his column bashing Garcia immediately following the incident. On the other hand, I’d like to extend the olive branch to Garcia, like he and fellow Gilroyans do in times of need, and give him the benefit of the doubt.
Bayless calls on the 49ers to use the recent arrest as leverage in renegotiating his contract. “Maybe, (Garcia) will use this arrest as a wake-up call. Maybe the front office will use it as negotiating leverage, asking Garcia to take less money while committing to less nightlife.”
Garcia has no past history of DUIs or arriving at game-time hungover from the night before, so why should his one-and-only arrest have any bearing on his contract? If that were the case, some professional athletes’ contracts would be re-negotiated on a weekly basis?
Now that I got that off my chest, I must add that Garcia – despite his recent brush with the law – is the best man for the quarterbacking job for the San Francisco 49ers. He is worth every penny of his salary, simply because you know exactly what you are going to get from him week in and week out. That’s 110 percent grit and guts every step of the way. How many other professional athletes can offer the same effort?
Mr. Bayless believes “The 49ers need to be bold and ax Garcia.” How quickly we forget the same man single-handedly orchestrated the greatest comeback in 49ers franchise history and the second biggest in NFL Playoff history two seasons ago against the New York Giants. The same man who is one of only three quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to throw for four touchdowns and run for two more in one game last season against Arizona.
“Last season, Garcia was wildly erratic,” Bayless wrote. “Too many killer interceptions and panicky breakdowns. Maybe his confidence was damaged as much as his body. But he lost some arm strength, accuracy and last-minute magic. And maybe he tried to escape the pain and pressure by partying a little too hard.”
Maybe he doesn’t remember that Garcia is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who played in 61 straight games. Did he forget about the 49ers’ season-long offensive line troubles, Garcia’s nagging back and ankle injuries and a team playing under a first-year head coach? Rome was not built in a day, and the Niners’ list of problems cannot be solved in one swift and brash decision.
49er fans have been spoiled with Super Bowl rings, Hall of Fame quarterbacks and a football mastermind in Bill Walsh, who by the way recognized Garcia’s talents in college and got him the tryout with the team.
Well, this is the 21st century, where dynasties are scarce, high-quality players are more concerned with image than actions and coaches are dropped in an instant.
Mr. Bayless, the 49ers have never been bold. If they were, Owens would have been traded long ago, or cut, or at least fined, or even de-activated like Tampa Bay Bucs’ receiver Keyshawn Johnson by Coach Jon Gruden.
None of that happened, so there was dissension in the locker room and no team unity, which is essential in building a championship team.
“Maybe it’s time for this franchise to free itself from Garcia’s escalating hot-and-cold mediocrity,” Bayless stated. “As long as they hedge their best with Garcia, they’ll be stuck halfway up Gilroy, burning out clutch after clutch.”
If not Garcia, then who?
Mr. Bayless gave some options like veteran Mark Brunell, who has never taken a team to the Super Bowl. Like trading up to get top quarterback prospect Eli Manning, who will take years to develop into the quarterback Garcia is today. Like finding the next Matt Hasselback hidden behind a Brett Favre, which is a long shot that is much easier said than done.
Let’s face it, Garcia, even at age 33 soon to be 34, is the best chance the 49ers have to getting back to the playoffs and winning the Super Bowl in the near future. Cutting Garcia would cost the team nearly $10 million plus the contract of a replacement quarterback (Imagine the cost of the contracts to pick up any of the above-mentioned players). Keeping him would cost only a little more.
Great quarterbacks are few and far between these days, so why in the world would the 49ers ax one. This sounds so familiar to last season’s firing of Steve Mariucci. Did the head coaching position improve at all with Dennis Erickson? I don’t think so.
The fact remains Garcia does not need to be the best player on the team. Is Super Bowl-bound Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Jake Delhomme the best player on Carolina? No, Stephen Davis is. New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady may be the best offensive player on his team, but the defense is what has carried that team back to the Super Bowl.
The 49ers need to acquire another weapon to take some of the load off Garcia. It took Terrell Davis to give Hall of Fame-bound quarterback John Elway a Super Bowl ring. Former Miami Dolphins great Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl, and, surprise, he never had a running game.
So instead of worrying about Garcia’s image or production, the 49ers should focus on who else they can get to add some more spark to a team that already has cemented a top-tier quarterback. It would be money more well spent than paying off Garcia and spending big bucks on the same position.
That’s the only real way the 49er franchise can keep from burning out its own clutch on overpriced, pampered free agents, and truly get off of its rollercoaster ride that Bayless blames on Garcia.
Scott Forstner, a native New Yorker, is the sports editor for The Dispatch. To respond to his column, e-mail him at sp****@gi************.com
