SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- To understand why nobody in his orbit is surprised that Brock Purdy has quickly ascended from the final pick in the 2022 NFL draft to the starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, you have to know two stories: the one about mono, and the other about the saguaro cactus.
The tales are separate but linked in that they were the biggest obstacles in Purdy's early football career. He contracted mononucleosis entering his junior year of high school in 2016 and was on the losing end of a hand fight with a cactus playing paintball with his teammates and coaches the following year.