It's pretty good to be Jimmy Garoppolo these days.
The third-year fill-in quarterback is coming off about as impressive an opening performance as could be expected as he won his first-career NFL start last Sunday night in Arizona.
He's made it clear that he doesn't play the game to be a backup quarterback and has worked throughout his time in New England to be ready when his opportunity came.
Now, though, the young passer goes from the questions of opening night to the newfound expectations of success and continued winning in Week 2.
That's the reality of professional sports, being an NFL starter and the landscape in a sports-crazed locale like New England.
But in his Wednesday press conference with reporters in the media workroom at Gillette Stadium, Garoppolo did an impressive job of focusing on the task at hand while giving the media just a taste what he's experienced in the last couple days riding the high, temporarily, of his 1-0 record as a starter.
Here are a few highlights from Garoppolo's press conference.
1. Brothers know best: In just a short week Garoppolo went from a total unknown to a guy that multiple Boston columnists wrote should lead the Patriots to a 4-0 record during Tom Brady's suspension. Or, as former teammate Terrance Knighton said on Twitter, a guy who may have earned himself $100 million last Sunday night, an assessment that's probably only a slightly exaggerated, premature evaluation.
That's a lot to be thrown at a player, especially a guy out of Eastern Illinois who's not exactly dealt with the glitz, glamour and media all his life.
So how does Garoppolo stay grounded? Well, that job is apparently a family effort.
"Just kind of my family as a whole," Garoppolo said of those outside the New England organization who keep him level-headed. "Growing up with two older brothers, especially, they'll let you know real quick what you did wrong and what you can improve on. Just kind of the upbringing, I guess. That really helps out."
Garoppolo didn't get into the details of what he'd heard from his brothers, but it sounded like they hit the mark.
"Nothing specific, just humbling texts I guess," he said.
But the humbling influence inside the organization is equally as important, if not more so.
"I think the atmosphere in the building - the coaching staff does a good job of keeping us level-headed, so it's just a 'never too high, never too low' kind of thing. It's just on to the next week. It's a long season so you just have to keep moving on," Garoppolo said.
2. On to Miami: It also helps that Garoppolo doesn't have too much time to rest on his success. While he had months to prepare for the major challenge of the Cardinals defense, he has a shortened week to get ready for a Dolphins D that has a very challenging front that will look to make life hard on the young passer.
"Yeah, we watched the Arizona game on the flight home and then pretty much got into Miami," Garoppolo said. "There wasn't a lot of sleep, but that's what it calls for when you do those long trips like that."
What he saw form Miami as a front with the likes of Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake that will test both Garoppolo and his makeshift, young offensive line.
"That front seven, they're very talented. As good of a front as we'll see - we have to do a good job of handling them and we'll go from there," Garoppolo said.
"Overall, up front they're very talented. They do a lot of things well and it's going to be a good challenge for us this week. We have to do what we do and handle them."
3. Lots of texts, but no famous actresses: Garoppolo admitted that his phone blew up, as the saying goes, after Sunday night's impressive performance and victory.
While he was studying the tape and turning the page to the Dolphins, many were sending him their thoughts on his first NFL start.
"Yeah, answering texts and stuff like that is always tough but for the most part, we're just going about our business as usual," Garoppolo said of the extra attention.
Did he hear from anybody he didn't expect, maybe celebrities, rock stars or actresses?
"You said actresses kind of specifically there," Garoppolo said with a big smile. "But no, nothing crazy. Some people I haven't talked to in years, but it was a lot of texts."
For the record that did not include a call from Brady, who by rule is not allowed to talk to any teammates about football during his four-game suspension?
One gesture the quarterback did enjoy in the immediacy of the postgame locker room in Arizona was the praise he received from Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick, who can be pretty frugal with the positive reinforcement at times.
"It's nice. In that moment after the game, everybody's emotions are running very high at that time, so it's always good to hear that from the head coach and you take those when you get them," Garoppolo admitted.
