Jimmy Garoppolo needed one last sniff of something before making his NFL starting debut Sunday night in Arizona.
Just before kickoff, NBC showed Garoppolo on the sideline smelling some kind of a stick. Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth figured it was smelling salts.
Whatever it was, it must have worked. Garoppolo led the Patriots to a touchdown on their first drive with a 37-yard pass to Chris Hogan. It was the second touchdown pass of Garoppolo’s career and it gave the Patriots a 7-0 lead.
Halfway through the first quarter at least, the Patriots weren’t missing Tom Brady or Rob Gronkowski.
Whatever it was that Garoppolo was doing on the sideline right before the game, maybe there will be more quarterbacks doing it.
