Free advice for Trey Lance: Don’t log on.
Or turn on your TV.
Or flip on The Leader.
Or listen to a podcast.
Or read the Jock Blog.
(On that last point, he has plenty of company.)
I mean, the 21-year-old is free to do whatever he wants. He can do all of the above.
But if he does do any of the above, he best take the advice I once heard John Harbaugh dole out: when it comes to the NFL and handling rumors/trash talk/gossip, you better wear elephant skin.
This is no time for baby deer skin.
The Harbaugh boys have a way with words.
Trey Lance, if you follow these things, is now merely warming the 49ers QB1 seat for either a) Tom Brady; or b) Aaron Rodgers. Thanks, kid.
In fairness, if you’re going to lose the QB1 job, you might as well lose it to one of those two guys, right?
Don’t ask how we got here. It’s a combination of innuendo, speculation, educated guesswork and, perhaps most importantly, a Sports News Beast in society that craves NFL gossip like the Cookie Monster craved Tollhouse.
The best math is this: Jimmy Garoppolo said “see ya” to the team and media. Educated people said the 49ers will trade Jimmy G and shed his $25 million cap hit. Trey Lance, for whom the 49ers traded monster chunks of draft real estate, said he was ready, and educated people in the NFL said the 49ers are pleased with the kid outta North Dakota State and he’s ready to go in 2022.
But.
BUT.
Tom Brady did his podcast with Jim Gray and said “never say never.” Aaron Rodgers remains terminally unhappy in Green Bay, and remains the guy about whom Kyle Shanahan phoned Matt LaFleur last year. Joe Montana went to Radio Row and said he’d bring Jimmy back, because he heard Trey isn’t ready. Steve Young came on KNBR and openly speculated about either Brady or Rodgers to the 49ers, and tagged the speculation with visions of Super Bowl parades in Santa Clara.
As the kids might say today: Sheesh.
That’s all it took — well, that, and a mid-to-late February sports doldrums — to fuel up enough Brady-or-Rodgers-to-the-Niners tweets to get its own Twitter account. Maybe @TreyNotReady; or @FulfillYourDestinyTommy. It probably has a blue check mark by now.
Thing is, the NFL is so insane, I wouldn’t rule any of it out. Don’t forget, John Lynch once “jokingly” asked Bill Belichick if he could trade for Tom Brady, and wound up with Jimmy G as a stocking stuffer.
And in not ruling any of it out, that would mean Trey Lance would sit for two years before starting.
So? You know who else sat two years before starting? Aaron Rodgers.
No. Wait. Check that. He sat *three* years before starting.
And you know who else came to the 49ers at age 27, and sat *three* years before starting?
Our buddy who talks to us on The Sports Leader. Number Eight.
So, the idea of Lance, who turns 22 in May, sitting for two years is hardly outrageous.
You could argue that trading all that beachfront real estate for Lance to sit two seasons is outrageous, but then I’d point you to Rams GM Les Snead’s shirt at the Rams Super Bowl parade. If you don’t know, look it up.
At this point, your duty as a 49ers fan is to choose which outrageous rumor you’d rather have: Rodgers, the California Golden Bear, returning home to avenge the ghost of the 2005 NFL Draft? Or Brady, the greatest winner the NFL has ever known, coming home to sleep in his home bedroom in San Mateo, with his Joe Montana poster still on his wall and his Mom, Galynn, making him breakfast every morning before he makes the commute to Santa Clara?
I vote Brady, in a landslide. I won’t lie, the other day I pictured him in the 49ers uniform. For some reason, I had him on the road, in the gold pants and white jersey, the red ’12’ (yes, it’s been worn since Brodie, as I was just saying to my good friend Trent Dilfer) and ‘BRADY’ on the back.
I won’t lie. It looked amazing.
But then again, it’s just a rumor. Fueled by Twitter. And radio. And TV. And podcasts.
And a Jock Blog.
