Brock Purdy-mania ramping up as Super Bowl LVIII approaches

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - With Super Bowl Sunday less than two weeks away, one player continues to steal the spotlight here in Arizona.

Brock Purdy, the former Perry Puma, will start at quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. It has been a rapid rise to the top for the Queen Creek native.

“It did not change this guy,” Purdy family friend David Klecka said.

It’s what Klecka kept thinking as he sat next to Purdy’s family at the NFC Championship Game this weekend. The comebacks, the MVP talk, to him Purdy’s still that guy who likes chicken fingers and fishing.

“It is amazing, and he’s proud of it,” Klecka said. “He’s proud of Perry, he’s proud of Gilbert, Queen Creek, all of that.”

People across the state are also proud of the Arizona native. Injury attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe even put up about 75 billboards across Arizona saying “Let’s go Brock Purdy.”

“He’s somebody that you would want your son or daughter to look up to,” Rowe said. “And I think he’s been through a lot and persevered through everything.”

The billboards aren’t up anymore. They came down Sunday night. And some die-hard Cardinals fans on social media weren’t exactly thrilled about the love shown towards a San Francisco 49er. But Lerner says that wasn’t the point behind the message.

“We’re not supporting his team, and certainly not meant to be a slight to any of the local teams or any of the local fans,” he said. “We’re supporting an individual who embodies the best of us.”

Many of you might know Purdy’s backstory. He wasn’t recruited until late in his high school career, and played at an under-the-radar college program at Iowa State. That was before becoming Mr. Irrelevant, the last player drafted in the 2022 NFL Draft. But Preston Jones, his former football coach at Perry, says it’s the things you can’t measure that set Purdy apart.

“He takes coaching and he doesn’t take it critically. He takes it as a learning process. And he wants to be coached,” Jones said. “So when he’s corrected, he takes it as a compliment.”

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