Jimmy Garoppolo

James Richard Garoppolo (born November 2, 1991), nicknamed "Jimmy G", is an American football quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL).

He played college football for the Eastern Illinois Panthers, setting multiple school records for career passing yards and passing touchdowns and winning the Walter Payton Award as a senior.

Garoppolo played football for the Eastern Illinois Panthers from 2010 to 2013.

In his first year, he started eight games, passing for 1,639 yards and 14 touchdowns and earning All-Ohio Valley Conference Newcomer Team honors playing under head coach Bob Spoo.

He went on to start every remaining game during his time at Eastern Illinois, passing for 2,644 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2011, 3,823 yards and 31 touchdowns in 2012, and 5,050 yards and 53 touchdowns in 2013, breaking the school record for career pass completions previously held by former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.

In 2013, Garoppolo, playing his senior season in head coach Dino Babers's uptempo no-huddle offense, won the Walter Payton Award, given to the most outstanding offensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

He was also named the 2013–14 OVC Male Athlete of the Year and the 2013 College Football Performance FCS National Quarterback of the Year.

Garoppolo was selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft by the New England Patriots, where he spent his first four seasons as Tom Brady's backup and was a member of two Super Bowl-winning teams.

Represented by Don Yee, Garoppolo was considered one of the better quarterback prospects for the 2014 NFL draft.

The New England Patriots selected him in the second round of the 2014 draft as the 62nd overall pick.

He was the first player from the Football Championship Subdivision drafted in 2014, and the highest-drafted quarterback the Patriots had selected since Drew Bledsoe was picked first overall in 1993.

Garoppolo and the Patriots signed a four-year contract worth $3,483,898 ($1,103,744 guaranteed) with an $853,744 signing bonus.

In 2014, Garoppolo made his regular season debut in the fourth quarter of the Patriots' Week 4 41–14 road loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

He led the Patriots on a scoring drive, which led to his first career passing touchdown on a 13-yard pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski on his first drive.

He finished the game completing six of seven passes for 70 yards and one touchdown, with a passer rating of 147.9.

In his rookie season, Garoppolo played in six games.

He completed 19 of 27 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown with a 101.2 passer rating and had 10 rushing attempts for 9 yards.

While Garoppolo did not take any snaps in the Patriots' Super Bowl XLIX victory, he was credited with helping to prepare the Patriots' defense for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

In 2015, Garoppolo appeared in five games in relief roles.

He completed one of four passes for six yards on the season for a 39.6 passer rating.

After starting quarterback Tom Brady was suspended by the league for four games for Deflategate, head coach Bill Belichick named Garoppolo the starting quarterback for the first game of the 2016 season, and he was expected to stand in for Brady for all four games.

Garoppolo completed 24 of 33 passes for 264 yards and a touchdown in a 23–21 Week 1 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

He threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins before being sidelined with a shoulder injury in the second quarter of the 31–24 victory.

He sprained his AC joint after a hit by Dolphins' linebacker Kiko Alonso that kept him out the next two games, giving the starting job to rookie Jacoby Brissett before Brady returned from his suspension in Week 5.

In Super Bowl LI, while active for the Patriots' 34–28 overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons; he was the only Patriot who did not play in the game.

During the offseason, Garoppolo was the subject of several trade rumors with the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns being cited most commonly as potential suitors.

Ultimately, no trade occurred and Garoppolo remained with the Patriots going into the season.

Traded to the San Francisco 49ers near the end of the 2017 season, Garoppolo helped revitalize a 1–10 team by winning the five remaining games that year.

However, his San Francisco tenure was afflicted by injuries, which caused him to miss most of the 2018 and 2020 seasons.

After suffering another season-ending injury in 2022, Garoppolo signed with the Raiders the following year.

Garoppolo was born and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

He is the third of four sons born to Denise (née Malec) and Tony Garoppolo Sr., a retired electrician.

His older brothers are Tony Garoppolo Jr., an architect; and Mike Garoppolo, a teacher, and his younger brother is Billy Garoppolo.

He is from a "tight-knit, big Italian family"; his paternal grandparents, Anthony and Rose Garoppolo, were both Italian immigrants, while his maternal grandparents, Theodore J. Malec and Harriet D. Seidel, were of Polish and German descent, respectively.

He attended Rolling Meadows High School in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, where he was a quarterback and linebacker for the Mustangs football team.

He played in 19 games at quarterback during his junior and senior seasons, and passed for 3,136 yards and 25 touchdowns.

In addition to football, Garoppolo was a pitcher for Rolling Meadows, stating that "baseball was my first love when I was a little kid."

A 2-star recruit, Garoppolo accepted an offer to play football at Eastern Illinois over offers from Illinois State and Montana State.

His most successful season was in 2019 when he guided the 49ers to their conference's top seed and an appearance in Super Bowl LIV.

Garoppolo also helped lead the team to an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2021.