Garrad Making Habit of Overcoming Adversity

BarlOwens · Oct 19, 2007

If Peyton Mannings path to NFL stardom was paved in gold, David Garrards was cracked, crumbling, and led to the back door.

Manning is the reigning Super Bowl MVP. Garrard was a career backup in Jacksonville until about 50 days ago. Manning cranks out commercials like theyre 30-yard go routes to Marvin Harrison. He has hosted Saturday Night Live and is becoming more recognizable than the leagues logo. Garrard could probably take a walk in Indianapolis before the Colts-Jaguars game Monday night with his jersey on, and still couldnt make heads turn.

In the shocker of the season, the closest thing the two have in common is their passer rating. Manning, bettered in the AFC by only Tom Brady, posts a 108.6 a mark observers have come to expect from him. Behind those two is Garrard, boasting a 104.7 and surprising even himself in his sixth season.

On a team known for its defense and a two-headed running attack featuring Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, Garrard is firing completions at a 66.2 percent clip, has thrown six touchdowns, and is the only Week One starter in the AFC who has yet to have a pass intercepted.

Not bad for a guy whose head coach, Jack Del Rio, ruled him out as the teams starter all the way back in February. Del Rios choice was Byron Leftwich, who he ended up cutting Sept. 1 after Garrard upped his game to new heights in the preseason.

Leftwich, who Garrard called a good friend landed with the Falcons and will make his first start of the season in Week Seven against the Saints.

David, even though he wasnt happy about it not being a competition (to start), just went to work everyday and took care of his business, first-year Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said. As the preseason rolled around, he just played very, very well and opened a lot of eyes.

Garrard and Del Rio had a strained relationship at best prior to this season. Garrard started a career-high 10 games last year while Leftwich was injured. In one of the more devastating moments of Garrards career, Del Rio pulled him from Jacksonvilles season finale against Kansas City after he threw an interception and inserted the teams third quarterback, Quinn Gray, into what turned out to be a 35-30 loss.

I knew that I had a perfect opportunity last year to seal the deal and be the starter here and it got away from me toward the end, Garrard said. It was a hard pill to swallow. I was pulled out of the last game. Ive never been pulled out before, since Ive been playing football. That was tough.

It took an entire offseason, a slew of organized team activities (OTAs), and training camp, but Garrards determined play earned him back the trust of his head coach.

If you perform well, no matter who is entrenched as the starter, if you can clearly outplay them, if you can clearly show the coaches that youre giving the team a better chance, then youll play, Garrard said. Coaches always say theyre going to play the best guy and Jack really stood to his word. That earned a lot of respect from me.

Del Rio's initial doubts, followed by Garrard's triumphiant pre- and now regular-season performance, are just the latest in a life-long cycle. Throughout his 29 years, the East Carolina alum has beaten adversity to a pulp. His mother, who raised him by herself, lost a two-year battle with breast cancer and passed away when David was 14. As a freshman in high school in North Carolina, he was without either parent. Yet still, he became the best prep quarterback in the state his senior year and then one of the all-time greats in East Carolina history. He holds the universitys record in total offense and is second in Conference USA history for the same category.

You definitely have to grow up a little bit more each time, Garrard said of his trying adolescence. As a 12-year-old kid to hear your mother is stricken with breast cancer and then to have her pass away two years later, but to have to still go through high-school and deal with everything in life, you really have to grow up and start living for the people that are around you.

His career with the Jaguars began in 2002, when he was selected in the fourth round of the draft. Other than taking over in a few games each year for the often-injured Leftwich, Garrard was mostly relegated to the sideline. He looked forward to the day when he would get a real chance at starting for a team that wasnt so committed to one certain player.

Before that opportunity came, life presented him with another major roadblock.

In 2004, he was diagnosed with Crohns disease an illness that leaves its victims with inflamed intestines causing chronic pain, diarrhea, and weight loss. During the offseason his first as a free agent he underwent surgery to remove a 12-inch section of his intestines.

With a perspective that would give most players agents a sharp pain in their abdomens, Garrard called all that hardship a blessing. If not for the disease, he said he would have signed elsewhere and moved on from Jacksonville.

There was a reason for me staying, there was a reason for me to get sick at that point, Garrard said. I always think things happen for a reason.

Looking back now, it turned out to be a great decision.

Garrard takes Remicade a drug that keeps his disease in check intravenously every eight months and also goes in for a colonoscopy once a year to make sure the Crohns isnt flaring up.

As of now, he doesnt feel any of the symptoms and is in good health. But more than physical well-being, knowing that he has the support of Del Rio and the rest of the coaching staff could be whats driving him to a breakout season.

David studies, he learns, he asks questions, Koetter said. But I think more than any of that stuff, people can make too much of that, when all of a sudden the head coach says, Hey, youre our starting quarterback, and you know its your team and youre the man, and you have confidence in how youre playing, I think those things combined can really lend itself well to playing well.

Garrard attributes his early-season success to Koetters play-calling. Koetter said the hot start stems more from good decision-making with the football.

Whatever it is, the Colts will do all they can to disrupt it, with Tony Dungy, a defensive mastermind, scheming against Jacksonvilles seventh-ranked offense.

The bright lights of Monday night will shine down hard on Garrard, and hell attempt not to get lost in them as he faces the defending champions. He, of all people, knows how quickly adulation and the feeling of being on top can be yanked away.

I want to prove that I am a consistent quarterback throughout 16 games and that Im not just a flash in the pan for the first half, he said.

It may be his toughest challenge in a life that has been full of them that back door to NFL stardom is ready to be kicked wide-open.
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PFW

Platoon 86 · Oct 19, 2007

Good read. Seems like he's been through a lot in life. I haven't had a chance to watch him this year, seems to be doing well though.

BarlOwens · Oct 19, 2007

hasn't thrown an INT through 5 games so far..

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