| |  On the path toward greatness
By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com
The thing about icons in San Francisco is it gets crowded out there on the shelf.
|  | | Jeff Garcia's touchdown had 49er fans celebrating on Sunday, but it may not be enough to reward Steve Mariucci with a new contract. |
It is part of what drives Jeff Garcia -- and, of course, it is Garcia who understands better than anyone the futility of that very chase. And so it was that even on the day of his greatest performance as a member of the 49ers, the CFL refugee turned three-time NFL Pro Bowler harbored no illusions about a quick ascension to the plateau of Montana and Young.
"I'm going to be excited about today," Garcia said in the moments after using his arm and his legs to dismantle the New York Giants. "I'm excited about so many things that have taken place while I've been here with the San Francisco 49ers ... But as far as legacies are concerned, I'm still trying to find my way out of a hole sometimes."
He found a path against the Giants, whose defense fell apart in the second half in the face of a constant no-huddle San Francisco attack that featured Garcia throwing almost continuously on the run. He found a path that led to 25 unanswered points down the stretch, and that impossible 39-38 finish, and 331 passing yards and 60 rushing yards, and the game-winner with a minute left, and the whole damn thing.
He found a path, Garcia did, that eventually leads up the side of Mt. Montana. It's the path Steve Young found nearly a decade ago.
And it works, quite naturally, only if you keep following it.
They don't know what to make of Garcia around Candlestick Park, and it's possible they never will. He is the QB who piled up the star-like statistics for years without winning a single post-season game before Sunday's mind-bender. He is the successor to Montana and Young, which right off the top stacks up as one of the most thankless great jobs in America. You compete with five Super Bowl championships how, exactly?
He is the guy who works better on the fly, better when it's more chaotic than not, better while back in his Canadian-days mode -- so much so, in fact, that all three of his primary wide receivers, Terrell Owens, Tai Streets and J.J. Stokes, made prominent mention of the team's success in the two-minute drill after the Giants game, as if to urge 49ers coach Steve Mariucci to let it rip more often.
"That's been the success of our offense all year long," said Owens, who piled up 177 receiving yards on just nine catches. "Jeff's a better quarterback when he's on the run."
|  | | "The Catch" remains the bench mark of greatness for 49er quarterbacks. |
And he is that, as Young often seemed to be and as Montana so famously was for The Catch. But both Montana and Young also found ways to succeed in almost any circumstance offensively, and never mind the fact that both operated with deeper talent pools than the one Garcia wades in today. Pocket-protected, short-yardage, two-minute drill, fourth or fifth receiving option -- The great ones navigate them all.
Montana was great for years. Young was great for years. Significantly, their teams were championship contenders for seasons upon seasons upon seasons. It was an era in which the concept of a salary cap was either ignored altogether in 49erland or manipulated right up to (and sometimes over) the league's limit of patience. It was a glorious time in San Francisco, but it just ain't ever comin' back.
Garcia knows it. And yet the native of Gilroy, Calif., who grew up watching 49ers and Raiders games, also understands that the one thing that has not changed around San Francisco is its otherworldly sense of Super Bowl entitlement. The conditions have changed, but not the 49ers' almost fanatical groping toward another championship.
"Obviously," Garcia said, "the Lombardi Trophy is what we're after. And until that situation takes place, I really believe that my legacy is still going to continue to build ... I'm still trying to build a legacy."
He stepped toward Montana and Young on Sunday, and even given the historic nature of the comeback, it was but a step. It was a victory in a wild-card game against a fellow 10-6 team, no matter how hot the Giants had been, and nobody was rushing up to compare it with Montana's commanding Super Bowl performances or Young's brilliantly sustained bursts of excellence.
They weren't comparing. But they were talking. Jeff Garcia, four years into his career as the guy who followed Montana and Young, is in the conversation. That's enough for now.
Mark Kreidler is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee and a regular contributor to ESPN.com
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Divisional Playoffs
