Jimmy Garoppolo

BIOGRAPHY

Jimmy Garoppolo was born November 2, 1991, in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He is a Quarterback in the NFL.

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, 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 High School. Stating that, "Baseball was my first love when I was a little kid."

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 considered one of the better quarterback prospects for the 2014 NFL Draft. The New England Patriots drafted him in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, with the 62nd pick overall. 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 Patriots signed a four-year contract worth $3,483,898 ($1,103,744 guaranteed) with an $853,744 signing bonus.

On October 31, 2017, the Patriots traded Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for the 49ers' second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

He made his 49ers debut in Week 12 in the final minute of the 49ers' game against the Seattle Seahawks after starter C. J. Beathard suffered an injury; those were his first snaps of 2017, as he did not take the field with the Patriots in 2017. On his first play as a 49er, he rushed for six yards; on the final play of the game, he threw a 10-yard touchdown to Louis Murphy. He finished the 24–13 loss completing both pass attempts for 18 yards and a touchdown.

On February 8, 2018, the 49ers and Garoppolo agreed to terms on a 5-year contract worth a maximum of $137.5 million. At the time of its signing, it was the largest contract in NFL history on an annual basis, surpassing that of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. It also has nearly $90 million in guarantees in the first three years, also the largest total in NFL history.