San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was drafted by the New England Patriots in 2014, and ever since that day, he’s never had any problem with believing in himself.
In an interview with Bleacher Report, Jimmy G said that he came into the league believing he was better than Tom Brady right off the bat.
“Even when I was a little kid, my brothers, whenever we would play, I would literally always think I was going to win,” Garoppolo said. “I wouldn’t, but I would always think that. It’s like when I go to New England, when I first got there, I thought in my head, ‘I’m better than this dude.’”
Sure, it sounds a little crazy to say you thought you were better than a five-time Super Bowl champion (though when Jimmy G arrived, Brady had only won three titles). But sometimes in order to be successful, you have to convince yourself that you’re better than everybody else.
Brady himself was the exact same way when he came into the league. Even though he was New England’s fourth string quarterback during his rookie year, he always believed he was the guy that would take the starting job from Drew Bledsoe. If he’d never had that kind of confidence, it’s unlikely he would’ve let the Pats to their first Super Bowl title back in 2001.
It could be a reason why so many quarterbacks struggle in the NFL. Not to say they don’t have confidence in themselves, but they might not believe that they are better than everyone else in the league. It can all make the slightest difference.
Good for Jimmy Garoppolo for believing that nobody else can do the job better than him. And thus far, his confidence seems to have paid off. He’s currently undefeated as a starter in the NFL at 7-0. We’ll see what kind of damage he can do now that he’ll get to start for an entire season.