The injury that helped 49ers to the Super Bowl

One year ago, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was doing something most elite athletes never have to think about.

San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whose injury had an unexpected effect

One year ago, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was doing something that most elite athletes never have to think about.

“I was learning to run again,” Garoppolo said.

Garoppolo was in the midst of rehab after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the third week of the 2018 season. The team he got hurt against? The Kansas City Chiefs.

As fate would have it, what happened on September 23, 2018, would change the direction of both the 49ers and Chiefs, and in part explain why both franchises advanced to Super Bowl LIV, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, on Monday morning.

Before last season’s regular-season match-up, both teams still had an unproven player in the game’s most important position.

Kansas City had high hopes for Patrick Mahomes, the then-23-year-old quarterback making his first career home start at Arrowhead Stadium. Chiefs coach Andy Reid made perhaps the biggest gamble of his career by trading up and drafting Mahomes with the number 10 pick in the 2017 NFL draft. Despite his strong arm and gaudy passing numbers at Texas Tech, critics pointed to Mahomes’s mediocre win-loss record in college and the “Air Raid” offensive system he played in as a reason he might struggle at the pro level.

The unheralded Garoppolo had barely seen the field since being selected in the second round of the 2014 draft by the New England Patriots. He spent most of his first two seasons in a mop-up role behind Tom Brady. But after Brady was suspended for four games to begin the 2016 season in the aftermath of the Deflategate scandal, Garoppolo was thrust into a starting role. However, Garoppolo’s time as New England’s starting quarterback lasted all of six quarters.

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After leading the Patriots to an opening week victory over the Arizona Cardinals, Garoppolo was knocked out in the second quarter of Week 2, after spraining his shoulder. Garoppolo threw three touchdowns in the 31-24 win, but Jacoby Brissett took over at quarterback and Brady returned in Week 5, so Garoppolo went back to the bench.

After being traded to San Francisco in 2017 for a second-round pick, Garoppolo made his third career NFL start for the 49ers in December. He wound up leading San Francisco to five consecutive wins to end the year. Weeks after the 2017 season ended, the 49ers signed Garoppolo to a five-year, $137.5 million ­extension.

“I knew what Jimmy Garoppolo was,” 49ers safety Jimmie Ward said. “I played against him when I was at (Northern Illinois) and he was at (Eastern Illinois). I knew what type of quarterback he was.”

When the 49ers and Chiefs faced off in Week 3 of the 2018 season, Mahomes and the Kansas City offence came out firing, scoring touchdowns on all five of their first-half possessions to take a 35-10 halftime lead.

“They came in on their first 15 plays and ran all these crazy screens and different plays,” 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead said. “They were rolling.” Mahomes flashed the form that would win him the NFL’s MVP award, completing 24 of 38 passes for 314 yards, including three touchdowns in the 38-27 win.

With less than six minutes left in the game, Garoppolo dropped back to pass and scrambled to his left to elude a sack. Garoppolo made it 13 yards down the field, before his left knee buckled near the sideline. “It was a broken play and a freak thing,” said 49ers offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey. “It was a low point to lose our quarterback like that.”

With Garoppolo out for the season, the 49ers finished with a 4-12 mark, and wound up with the second pick in the 2019 NFL draft.

“We joke about it now. But if that doesn’t happen, then we don’t land Nick Bosa. So it’s OK,” McGlinchey said.

A star pass rusher out of Ohio State, Bosa has had an immediate impact on the ferocious 49ers defence, picking up 12 sacks this season, including three in the playoffs, and is the heavy favourite to win defensive rookie of the year.

Wall Street Journal