These quarterbacks were thought to be superior to Brock Purdy. They are now supporting him in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers quarterback was ranked as the 39th-best passer in his national high school class before to being selected as the last choice by the NFL, behind a number of current college players and numerous 9-to-5ers.
White attended Princeton for just a few games before leaving in 2022. He declared that he is supporting for Purdy without feeling sorry for himself.
After injuries to Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance in 2022, San Francisco was forced to play Purdy, a little-known and long-underrated quarterback.
Purdy took advantage of his opportunity to differentiate himself from being a two- or three-year washout and a player who would be here forever, saying, “The reality is two quarterbacks got injured, and this is where you separate yourself,” White said. “I don’t think you could look at that and say, ‘Oh, I could have done that.'” This young man exudes such confidence and composure.
He went on, “It’s difficult to think, ‘Oh, I could do that,’ given what he’s done with the Niners.'” He has undoubtedly contributed to his own notoriety.
During their joint recruiting trip to Alabama in their final year of high school, White and Purdy’s football careers crossed paths and they met with then-coach Nick Saban.
Glory from high school doesn’t always convert
Swift Lyle, the class 23rd-best passer, also benefited from his time at the University of Alabama. Lyle claimed that despite his excellent rating, Power Five schools had not offered him a scholarship before he transferred to Georgia State.
Lyle planned to attend junior college in the hopes of attracting the attention of a Power Five recruiter after not playing his freshman year, but he was unable to find any interested parties.
“I attempted to attend that junior college to play football for another year and then hopefully be recruited again, but that plan was unsuccessful,” Lyle remarked.
After cutting his football losses short, Lyle went full time to the University of Alabama, where he earned a finance degree in 2022 from the storied football college.
He currently works in marketing for Thompson Tractor Company in Birmingham, Alabama, and he is considering a career in pharmaceutical or medical equipment sales.
Despite Lyle’s lackluster football career, the native of Alabama declared he would give it his best for Purdy on Sunday.
Yes, I could have been that person, but all I’m doing is rooting for him. He’s a fantastic tale,” Lyle remarked. Nothing compares to it. On February 11, I hope he wins; it would be fantastic.
No. 28 in the Purdy class, Gunnar Holmberg, is familiar with the struggle of having to find spare cash.
“I still had to ask my mom for money to be at FIU,” Holmberg, a player at Florida International and Duke, recalled. “It kind of influenced my decision to take a break, find a job, and figure out what my true goals in life are.”
Just seven miles from Purdy’s Levi’s Stadium, Holmberg chose to give up football and take a 9–5 job this past autumn, even though he still had NCAA eligibility.
Holmberg, who works for the San Jose Sharks in group ticket sales, acknowledged that he experienced a small pang of regret about his playing days coming to an end.
“It’s possible that I experienced some of that when I initially stopped competing,” the Duke graduate and future athletics administrator remarked. However, it’s content now.On Sundays, I don’t watch guys and think, “Oh, I should be out there.” Right now, I’m content with where I am.
You discover that it’s acceptable to not play, you know.
It wasn’t always simple for these former standout football players from high school to choose to go on with their lives.
Former Stanford quarterback Jack West remarked, “Of course I wanted to play in the NFL,” thinking back to his adolescent years when he was ranked seventh in the country for the 2018 class of passers.
After graduating from the esteemed West Coast institution in 2022, West worked for a significant construction company before returning to Alabama to get ready for the LSAT and submit an application for law school.
West remarked, “You know, you find out that’s OK” about giving up football. “You discover that applying your intellect to fields you may not have previously considered, such as law school, is acceptable.”
He is going to support Purdy on Sunday.
“Everyone follows their own path, and in this case, it happened to be becoming an NFL quarterback and winning a Super Bowl for his team,” West remarked. “I think it’s great that someone from our class is doing that, and I have nothing but respect for that guy.”
“Therefore, I’ve been on a journey to reinvent myself.”
20 No.During his lengthy career as a football player, Allan Walters attended Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, and Arkansas State before returning home to New Jersey to finish his education at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
He was employed in sales at ADP, the well-known payroll services firm, in 2023, when many of his high school classmates were playing college football. Since then, he has pursued a career in personal training, which he believes will keep him near football.
“I’m passionate about it,” he remarked.
Walters acknowledged that during his college career, he occasionally struggled with the strain of being a highly recruited quarterback. He has a few regrets as well.
He remarked, “Trust me, there are things I regret looking back.” “I wish that I had fully listened to some of the advice I received and fully bought in at times. I’m not saying I didn’t give my all or anything like that.”
According to Walters, when he was a teenager, he would frequently tell people that he had little chance of getting into the NFL. However, he acknowledged that teenage Walters had planned to play on Sundays all along.
He joked, “I never really thought that’s not going to be me, even though I knew my chances [were] low.” Thus, “it’s been a fun learning experience as I’ve been reshaping myself and discovering what I’m passionate about.”
Walters is interested in Purdy’s ascension and that of Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, an underappreciated high school talent.
So, no resentment at all. Walters mentioned Purdy and remarked, “He’s earned it.” And seeing players who are kind of flying under the radar like Jordan Love and Brock Purdy is very thrilling. It’s an amazing tale that’s incredibly thrilling to follow.
ACL tear changed the recipe for success
21st Matthew Baldwin, who attended Texas Christian University and Ohio State before deciding to give up football, was forced to do so after suffering an ACL tear late in high school that required many operations in college.
Prior to graduating from TCU with a bachelor’s degree in 2023, he made a medical retirement from the sport in 2020.
Nevertheless, Baldwin’s present position at chemical research company Blue present, in Hayward, California, some 25 miles north of Levi’s Stadium, came about as a result of having more time for physics and tech coursework when football was eliminated.
Baldwin’s interest in a STEM career was evident when he was a teenager, but his commitment to playing varsity football would have prohibited it. Baldwin said that he was previously fully committed to playing professional football as a high school standout because, “like any dumb 17-year-old would be like, ‘yeah, I’m going to the league (NFL)!'”
“Any quarterback who has ever played with delusional confidence, which I think you need to play quarterback, might think ‘anyone could do that’ (play like Purdy) and you couldn’t be more wrong,” Baldwin stated. “This is a dog named Brock. That guy is him.”
Baldwin declared that on Sunday, he will fully jump on the Purdy bandwagon.
“I have nothing but support and happiness for him,” stated the man. “He went after his dream. He’s not a haughty, conceited guy. He’s a modest guy who deserves everything.”
Remorse can be a “slippery slope.”
Of those eight guys who weren’t football players, two were still active in sports: No. 14 Connor Noland pitched in the minor league system of the Chicago Cubs, and No. 17 Arthur Sitkowski was a member of the University of Illinois coaching staff.
Football players should consider themselves to be more than just players on the field, according to Doyle, the foreign quarterback.
I think I’m more than just a football player. Not football player Kevin, but me, Kevin who plays football,” Doyle remarked. And I’m assuming Brock thinks the same thing. Being very modest, he gives off the impression that he is “just Brock,” not “Brock Purdy, the starting quarterback for the 49ers.”
“There’s no malice on my part, no ‘That should have been me,’ because that’s such a slippery slope, and I don’t need that,” he continued.
