This is the Stinkin' Truth. Ready to talk about your favorite players in football? You ready to talk about quarterbacks? Oh yeah. You love talking about quarterbacks. I do, I love them. Fernando Mendoza says Tom Brady has been very helpful in teaching him how to play quarterback in the NFL. Now, two thoughts first of all. What a valuable, valuable resource to have. Oh my gosh. For a guy that...
made such an impact on Jimmy Garoppolo that when you did, was it a 49er? 49er. 49er game, you were asking Garoppolo what he learned from playing with Brady, the idea of, what, eating, sleeping, that football is all-consuming, right? Yeah, he said that playing quarterback is not a job, it's a lifestyle. Like, everything you do surrounds, like, everything you do is surrounded in playing quarterback. So, every decision you make, whether it's when you're at home, whether it's, you know, when you're at the facility, whatever it is, it all has to do with how you manage your life and how you play the position.
So that was the advice. And for Fernando, I mean, what an unbelievable resource. Now, part of this, the story that I read was part of it is, you know, not only just playing, but leadership at that position. And that's an interesting thing because, you know, the one thing I think you have to be, Mike, when you're playing is you got to be you. You can't be anybody other than you, right? So that when you all of a sudden start adopting other people's philosophies, when you start adhering to that, it's one of the reasons I look at the Belichick tree and say, none of these guys had a lot of success leaving Bill Belichick.
and being part of that tree because you're all trying to be Belichick. Whether it was Matt Patricia, whether it was, you know, whether it was Cronel, whether it was, you know, Mangini, whoever it was, when you're trying to mimic or when you're trying to be like mini Belichick, people look at you and go, well, that's not authentic. Yeah, but aren't there some leadership traits that are just universal? Yeah. Doesn't matter your personality? Absolutely, but you gotta be you.
You can't all of a sudden, if you're not one of those dudes that'll get in the face of your receivers or demand something, and all of a sudden you try to be Brady-esque in doing that, that's not going to resonate. People will know that's not authentic. But the beauty here is that Mendoza is just starting out. So it's not like he's put something out there that if he deviated all of a sudden it would look and feel inauthentic. Well, you've got to be comfortable in what you're doing and who you are. I think one of the things about players, and I say this all the time, I think that's the IQ, intelligence quotient versus EQ, emotional quotient.
I think I said that right. But the horse sense part, the emotional part, like players can sniff that out. Like we're not all that bright. So, you know, I mean, we play football for a living, right? And I get it. Like when people say this guy's a genius, you know, that's in football terms. What do I always say? That genius in football, mutually exclusive events. Like you can be genius in your football sense, but you're not genius, right? Coaches can be genius. Players can't be genius.
coaches are not genius no how is a coach genius no in football in football parlance you can have you know football acumen and you can be really smart and you can be a quote-unquote football genius doesn't make you a genius so when when like media types like myself were covering you guys while you're winning back-to-back super bowls and we were referring to mike shanahan as the mastermind you were what rolling your eyes and laughing under your breath we ran six plays oh man i hope coach shanahan sees this well no i mean we like like mike's brilliance mike's brilliance was discovering during the course of putting a game plan together, the always and the nevers. When we get into this formation or this personnel group, they always do this. Let's devise a plan to exploit it, right? When we get into this formation, this personnel grouping, they never do this. How do we take advantage of that? In the six run plays that we run on a consistent basis, in the dozen past concepts that we run on a consistent basis. Well, if it was that easy, everybody would do it. So the fact that he stood out means that there was a certain level of genius. Again, in football parlance, yes. Yes.
Like, if I'm saying to Mike, I'm like, all right, put a game plan together that exploits a defense. 100%. That's the guy I want. If I'm saying, hey, Mike. how are we going to attack this infectious disease that's not the guy that i'm going like no i'm not i'm not going down that direction so when you say that offensive linemen are the smartest guys on a football team we're talking about a pretty shallow pool here though oh yeah yeah there's no there's no question i'm not i'm like hey there's there's football smarts and acumen and then there's real world that's like relying on hollywood stars to create your political beliefs like come on correct right they're memorizing scripts right like Let's not really down there in the trenches. Let's just stop right now. So that's where the football genius stuff happens. Last thought here about Brady. For a guy who goes out of his way with his football commentating business as well to insist that he's not involved as much in the running of the Raiders as people want to make it out to be, sure seems like he's heavily involved. Oh, I don't think. When I hear Clint Kubiak and I hear Fernando Mendoza, like, you know, I talk to Tom pretty much every day. That's heavily involved. Yeah, I don't think there's any question. And I think it's, again, like you said.
What an unbelievable resource to have, especially as a quarterback, when you start. Just own it, though. That's all I'm saying about Brady. But if you're Mendoza, you get to pick his brain about formations or how we like to run this play or all that kind of stuff is, to me, that stuff is fascinating. And the things you can learn from a guy like that, invaluable, invaluable experience for him. A couple other NFL quarterback-related stories. The 49ers reportedly are still open to the idea of trading Mac Jones.
And I'm kind of curious, you've become a big believer in the idea of quarterback rehab for some of these guys who were busts early on, go somewhere else, and then get rehabilitated in a way Sam Darnold-like, Baker Mayfield-like. Do you see Mac Jones being somebody that could take his time spent with the 49ers, maybe go somewhere else and blossom? Absolutely. I mean, think about him as a rookie. And I remember doing a New England game his rookie year and sitting down with not only Bill Belichick at the time, but Josh McDaniels talking about, man, this kid.
from a preparation standpoint, unbelievably prepared. And the fact that he could get them out of, and this was a Bill Belichick thing, like he can walk up the line of scrimmage and get us out of bad place, get us out of bad situations. So now, of course, like Josh McDaniels leaves to go coach the Raiders, right? I think that's what happened. And then all of a sudden, Bill Belichick outsmarts the National Football League and decides to have a special team coach in Joe Judge who gets fired from the Giants and, you know, and a defensive coordinator in Matt Patricia who gets fired from Detroit. What was he thinking? Come together to be the co-offensive coordinators. And it just, it ruined the kid.
I mean, it literally ruined the kid. But then he goes to, you know, he goes to Jacksonville and he backs up over there and everything else, but goes over to San Francisco to back up Purdy and then gets an opportunity to play for Kyle Shanahan when Purdy's injured and does a phenomenal job, keeps him in the playoff hunt, keeps him in the NFC West playoff hunt, which, you know, with Seattle and the Rams, that's a pretty tall task and does all those things, Mike, very much like Sam Darnold, you know, left his different stops and went to San Francisco and went through a year of rehab backing up Purdy. I think this would be very intriguing if you're one of these teams that really doesn't have a guy with the success he had early and then being under Kyle, learning kind of a progression-based offense that puts value in being under center, that puts value in running the ball, that does all those things. That would intrigue me if I'm a team right now that's got quarterback questions.