OLIVER HOLT: Brock Purdy came so close to banishing the idea he’s inferior to Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce… he didn’t find the deliverance he sought in Las Vegas but no one should call him irrelevant anymore

Being a man of God in Sin City means inhabiting a lonely place, but it was here that fate brought Brock Purdy in search of redemption. It was here, to Las Vegas, to the Strip, where the neon shone and the roulette wheels spun, that he was sent.

It was here that the young quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers rescued him from fame as Mr. Irrelevant. Here he was asked to prove he could follow in the footsteps of Joe Montana and Steve Young, the only 49ers quarterbacks to win the NFL’s biggest prize.

Purdy, who spent much of last week seeking solitude amid the madness of the first Vegas Super Bowl, beginning each day by reading Psalm 23, came so close, so desperately close to being banished forever of the idea that he is a ‘game manager’. ‘, a lesser quarterback than the greats, an inferior opponent to his Kansas City Chiefs counterpart, Patrick Mahomes.

He came so close to banishing the idea that he was somehow a naive destined to come second to guys like Mahomes and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who is in a relationship with Taylor Swift and is the embodiment of worldliness and a king of popular culture.

But in the end, even though he played well, even though he ran his offense superbly, even though he brought the 49ers to the brink of winning their first Super Bowl in 29 years, redemption eluded him and the 49ers fell to a crushing 25. -22 defeat in extra time.

Purdy didn’t fail, but Mahomes, Kelce and the rest of the Chiefs were just too good. Mahomes had an x-factor that puts him among the current crop of NFL quarterbacks and neither Purdy nor anyone else can match him. This performance, under the most extreme pressure, elevated Mahomes to one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.

And so it was the Chiefs who won Super Bowl LVIII and Mahomes who joined a select group of rookie quarterbacks who have won this trophy three times. Montana is one. The rest are Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman. It is a select band.

Purdy doesn’t belong and chances are he never will, but this is a man who was known as Mr. Irrelevant because he was selected by the 49ers with the 262nd and final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft. He may not have found redemption in Las Vegas, but no one can call him Mr. Irrelevant anymore. He’s way too good for that.

Purdy spoke at length last week about how true value comes from serving friends and family. He will be better equipped to deal with this heartbreaking loss than many. Instead of letting anyone down, he will have made his friends and family proud. Other things are more important to him than winning and losing football matches.

As he sat in the 49ers locker room trying to come to terms with the loss, the sound of the Beastie Boys belting out “You gotta fight for your right to party” echoed through Allegiant Stadium. Purdy is a stranger in this area.

Purdy, a devout Christian who spent much of his week in Sin City quoting Psalm 23 and espousing the virtues of selflessness, could hardly have been a more unlikely protagonist in a Super Bowl that set new standards for glamour, glitter and celebrity obsession. .

For anyone who had grown tired of the obsession with Kelce and Swift, their larger-than-life personas and their ubiquity in all forms of media, the 24-year-old Purdy, who until recently was the 49ers’ third quarterback, was the antidote. .

“I think there is more purpose and meaning in life when you invest in serving your family, friends and your community,” Purdy said last week during one of his news conferences at the 49ers team hotel in the hills outside Vegas.

‘That’s where you find the real purpose of life. I don’t want to be glorified and put on a pedestal above anyone else. That’s when you become relevant, when you serve others and love everyone, without it being about yourself. It’s not about you.’

Everything about Purdy screamed underdog. Even Kelce admitted earlier this week that he would root for him if he wasn’t on the opposing team. For starters, he was the third-youngest quarterback ever to start a Super Bowl, behind the Dolphins’ Dan Marino and the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger.

Then there is his salary. He may not be quite on the breadline, but a four-year contract that pays him a total of $3.7 million doesn’t exactly put him high on the NFL food chain. Compare it to Mahomes’ 10-year, $450 million deal and you get an idea of ​​the ruminative differences between Purdy and the game’s established superstars.

The contrast with Mahomes didn’t end there. Mahomes is revered as a dynamic passer, a leader who can talk his way out of trouble, who can innovate and improvise, a maverick but a maverick who gets the job done.

Purdy is not considered any of those things. He only became a starter in the first place due to injuries to both Trey Lance and Jimmy Garappolo, and while he jumped at the opportunity, he’s still patronized as a “game manager,” a player there to make the system work. and give the stage to the team’s star players.

Could he really do it? Could he really follow in Montana and Young’s footsteps? When legendary 49ers receiver Jerry Rice addressed the fans before the game and told them they had “superstars all over the field,” he may not have been thinking of Purdy as one of them.

Purdy took control of the game’s first possession and orchestrated the drive brilliantly, pulling away under pressure and finding Kyle Juszczyk, who fended off an attempted tackle to get a first down. The ride came to an abrupt end when Christian McCaffrey, one of the superstars Rice talked about, fumbled.

Purdy played superbly, passing with accuracy and ambition. It wasn’t until two minutes into the first quarter that he made his first incomplete pass. After a scoreless quarter, he moved the 49ers into field goal range early in the second quarter and they finally put the first points on the board with a field goal 12 seconds into the quarter.

The 49ers handled the pressure of the game better than the Chiefs. In notable scenes on the Kansas City sideline, Kelce angrily stormed into 65-year-old Chiefs coach Andy Reid for sitting on the bench during a play that led to a fumble.

It was an ugly, ugly response. Maybe Kelce should have heeded Purdy’s “it’s not about you” mantra. The Chiefs’ game was drenched in frustration.

Then, with 4 minutes and 23 seconds left of the half, Purdy orchestrated a brilliant play, throwing the ball to his Jauan Jennings, who then threw it back across the field to McCaffrey, who burst through the Chiefs defense and raced into the End Zone. Purdy left the field. The 49ers led 10-0.

The Chiefs finally claimed their first points with a field goal in the closing seconds of the half, but if Purdy had set a cool, calm and collected example, Mahomes was uncharacteristically wild, careless and nervous. Early in the third quarter, he threw a pass over Kelce’s head that was picked off by the Chiefs and another attempt to build momentum had failed.

But Harrison Butker made the longest field goal in a Super Bowl to bring the Chiefs within four points of the 49ers, and now Purdy began to struggle to find his receivers. Mahomes knows how to turn things around at this stage of a Super Bowl. Not Purdy.

The Chiefs took the lead for the first time late in the third quarter when the 49ers made a terrible mess of a punt return and Mahomes found Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the End Zone.

Purdy made a clutch throw on fourth-and-3 in the fourth quarter to try to restore the 49ers’ momentum and two plays later threw his first touchdown of the game to Jennings to put the 49ers ahead 16–13.

Another Chiefs field goal tied the scores with just under six minutes left in the game, but after Purdy led the 49ers back down the field, they answered with a field goal of their own to put a lead of 19-16. . When Kansas City kicked another three points in the final seconds, the game went to overtime.

Purdy couldn’t move the ball on the first possession, but he got a reprieve on a penalty against the Chiefs defense and patiently worked the ball upfield with the help of an explosive run from McCaffery. The 49ers got close enough to make a field goal.

Now it was up to Mahomes and Mahomes was just too good.