Culture
Brock Purdy managed up, managed down and saved the 49ers
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The most important run of the night may not have been by Christian McCaffrey. Or Deebo Samuel. Or even by George Kittle on one of his epic catch-and-runs.
Nope. It was probably by the game manager. The most momentum-seizing, back-breaking, Lions-taming runs, a case could be made, were by Brock Purdy, the conductor of a 17-point comeback in the San Francisco 49ers’ 34-31 win Sunday over Detroit in the NFC Championship Game.
“I’m blocking my man, and next thing I know I hear screaming,” left guard Aaron Banks said from the party in the 49ers locker room at Levi’s Stadium after the game. “And Brock is 20 yards downfield.”
One candidate was Purdy’s 21-yard scramble on second-and-11 in the third quarter. He took off up the middle and turned on his baby burners to get away from Lions defensive back Brian Branch. Two plays after the defense forced a turnover, Purdy had the 49ers first-and-goal at Detroit’s 4-yard line. McCaffrey finished the drive with a 1-yard score to tie the game at 24.
Purdy takes off for 21 yards!
📺: #DETvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/CL06CMKemX— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2024
Purdy’s scamper was symbolic of the 49ers’ aggressive mood. Red-zone issues wouldn’t get in the way this time. A field goal wasn’t an option.
He might’ve scored himself if not for Samuel.
“He ran right into me and bounced off,” Samuel said. “I feel like if I would’ve made that block, he probably would’ve scored.”
Another candidate was Purdy’s breathtaking scramble on the first play of the next drive. McCaffrey missed the block on blitzing Detroit safety Ifeatu Melifonwu. But Purdy ducked beneath what would’ve been an 8-yard sack on first down, spun to his left and scooted towards the sidelines. Before getting tackled, he threw a laser along the sidelines to Kyle Juszczyk for a toe-tapping first down. It was the first play on the drive that produced the go-ahead field goal. It was the first sign Purdy was in his bag.
Purdy magic in full effect 🪄
📺: #DETvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/Gif3vibPha— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2024
Another option, maybe the best one, was his third-and-4 run on what amounted to the game-winning drive to send the 49ers to the Super Bowl against Kansas City. With just under five minutes left, and the 49ers just across midfield, Detroit was desperate for a stop. But Purdy stepped up in the pocket and took off again. He escaped the grasp of Lions sack specialist Aidan Hutchinson, slipped the diving clutches of linebacker Jack Campbell, and outran linebacker Alex Anzalone to the edge.
After turning up the field, weaving into open space, Purdy didn’t slide. He dove head first. Because he wanted every yard. Because scared money don’t make money. Because championships aren’t won with passivity.
Brock Purdy keeps on doing damage with his legs!
📺: #DETvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/lPi4pqPzJT— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2024
Purdy has been typecast by many as the prototypical game manager. A passenger more than a driver. A beneficiary more than a benefactor. A loss preventer more than a victory retriever. The game manager label is basically a pejorative in modern quarterback discourse.
But Sunday, the 49ers needed something more. Their season was on the line. Their championship hopes were slipping away.
Purdy became who they needed him to be: a playmaker, a difference maker. In the second half, he was 13-for-16 passing for 174 yards and a touchdown. No interceptions. His 49 rushing yards was the best evidence he wasn’t merely a passenger in this historic comeback. He was driving.
“I thought it was the difference between winning and losing,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Purdy’s scrambling. “He made some big plays with his legs, getting out of the pocket, moving the chains on some first downs, some explosives. He competed his ass off today. Wasn’t easy for any of us. He kept grinding. He was unbelievable there in the second half.”
In the NFC divisional round, Purdy overcame his struggles to come up clutch on the final drive, marching the 49ers to the game-winning score. He one-upped himself for the NFC title, leading San Francisco from 17 points down.
He orchestrated a run of 27 points over five consecutive drives, flipping the script on the Lions.
“When I’m down 17 at half,” Purdy said, “honestly I’m thinking, ‘Alright God. You’ve taken me here. Win or lose, I’m gonna glorify you.’ That’s my peace. That’s the joy. That’s the steadfastness. That’s where I get it from. That’s the honest truth.”
Detroit had a significant hand in its own demise. Dropping passes. Passing on field goals in favor of pride and pattern. Purdy made sure all their misdeeds were punished.
It was more than enough to add some texture to the debate about Purdy. At least to give his detractors pause. At least to recognize the possibility his ceiling might be even higher than his halo. He may not be on the level of the probable MVP Lamar Jackson or uber-talented Josh Allen. Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are more coveted talents.
But Purdy isn’t home.
Brock Purdy did it with his legs as well as arm Sunday, rushing for 49 key second-half yards to help spark the 49ers’ comeback over the Lions. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
“I don’t have enough good things to say about Brock,” McCaffrey said. “All he’s done since he’s been here is play at an elite level. And everything starts with him. We’re lucky he’s our quarterback. He takes a lot of heat for absolutely no reason. All he’s done is been a great leader and a great player.”
Purdy doesn’t have a big arm. Or the blazing athleticism. His inexperience shows up at times. His accuracy can abandon him. He’s had enough interceptions dropped to convince you he must be living right. He put up some astounding statistics, throwing his name into the MVP conversations, but he’s also had some moments to make the thought of him winning the league’s highest honors a bit ridiculous.
All of that was evident in the first half on Sunday. It was the version of Purdy so easy to question, to scoff at when mentioned with the elite. He completed just 47 percent of his passes the first two quarters — including an interception that set up a Detroit touchdown — and missed several other throws. The potent 49ers offense, against a vulnerable defense, mustered just seven first-half points.
The entire Bay Area was asking to speak to the manager.
That’s when Purdy emerged. The young man with a wholesome smile, responsible attire and at-your-service humility.
“My faith never wavered,” 49ers safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. said of his quarterback. “I’ve been saying it all year. You’ve got a guy like that who can control the game, who knows where to go and when to go with the ball. I’m happy he’s on my team. I’ll tell y’all that. I never worry. When Purdy needs to put up points, that’s when he’s at his best.”
What pulled the 49ers through was the immeasurables of Purdy. The gunslinger mentality. The mid-major resolve. The Mr. Irrelevant chip on his shoulder. The little guy toughness.
Like that heart-stopping throw to Jauan Jennings on third-and-4 with the 49ers down 17. Purdy scrambled, stopped short of the line of scrimmage and threw a pass across his body to the middle. It was more like an alley-oop, and Jennings needed all of his 6-foot-3 frame and 6-foot-4 wingspan to snag the one-handed catch and keep the drive alive. It was Patrick Mahomesian.
But most of all, the heart. Purdy isn’t afraid of the pressure. He can look rattled sometimes, but not enough to shake him into a shell. His will to win took over Sunday.
The play of the game, his deep chuck to Brandon Aiyuk, was him being the opposite of a game manager. With the 49ers down two touchdowns, and after the defense had just come up with a massive turnover on downs, Purdy wasn’t looking to play it safe.
He was trying to make a play. He sensed they needed something big and he went for it.
AIYUK UNBELIEVABLE!
📺: #DETvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/gm8L5xwa9D— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2024
“In that moment,” Purdy said, “I’m looking at it like we need a play. I’m not going to be stupid and just throw the ball up. But B.A. is one-on-one. I’ma take that opp. Especially in this kind of game. We needed that kind of play. So people can say what they want, but I was giving my guy a shot.”
The Lions had a single safety who was hovering in the middle of the field. When Samuel cut on a crossing route, the safety went with him. That left Aiyuk one-on-one with Detroit cornerback Kindle Vildor.
“I seen it live,” Samuel said. “I seen the guy cut the high cross that I was running and I just looked up and Brock cut it loose.”
Purdy is here, and not Jimmy Garoppolo, because the 49ers can’t win the Super Bowl without a quarterback capable and willing to hit the deep ball. For all his success, Garoppolo’s hesitancy to throw downfield, even if created by Shanahan’s hesitancy to call for longer throws, put a ceiling on the 49ers’ offense. They drafted Trey Lance looking to get more dynamic.
They ended up with Purdy, who can scramble and push the ball downfield.
The 49ers lost the last Super Bowl they reached because they couldn’t score in the fourth quarter. While Patrick Mahomes was fashioning himself into a legend, the 49ers offense stifled under Garoppolo’s predictable slant passes and pocket confinement.
Purdy may not outduel Mahomes, either. But it’s not off the table. It was said he couldn’t come from behind and he has. It was said he couldn’t carry the team and he did. It was said he wasn’t the reason the 49ers won and he was. He is, indeed, surrounded by talent. And he might get outclassed. He might come up short. But Sunday was more evidence of the gamer in him. He can manage up. He can manage down.
Purdy isn’t afraid. Not to run for it, or sling it, or take the top off the defense.
His pass to Aiyuk wound up a bit too deep — or pass interference might have prevented Aiyuk from getting to the ball — and Vildor had an interception chance. His job is to stay on top of the receiver, and he did. But the pass bounced off his helmet and into the arms of Aiyuk.
Lucky? Absolutely. But fortune favors the bold.
“I saw the replay,” Kittle said, “and I was like, ‘Just how we wanted it to look. Off the guy’s facemask right to B.A.’ Dang. Brock’s good at football isn’t he?”
If he’s a game manager, he must be the premium version.
GO DEEPER
49ers win the NFC Championship Game and justify an entire era
(Top photo of Brock Purdy celebrating a touchdown in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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