SANTA CLARA — Forty-five minutes before kickoff, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy jogged over to the sideline to greet some of the closest people in his life.
He took a quick break from warmups before the team’s Week 15 win over the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium to hug family members and kiss his fiancée, Jenna.
The game had special significance, as it was Purdy’s first appearance as a professional in Arizona, where he grew up less than an hour’s drive away.
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The moment captured on social media went viral, in large part because it appeared to show two distinct sides of Purdy.
Purdy, 24, confirmed what everybody thought they saw was, indeed, happening.
“Yeah,” Purdy told NBC Sports Bay Area in an exclusive interview on "49ers Talk." “I saw it afterward and I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t realize I did that,’ but it is true.”
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The video showed Purdy smiling and taking a photo with his loved ones. But the moment he turned to go back onto the field, his face turned expressionless.
“Obviously, we’re in uniform getting ready to warm up and get ready for the game, and I stopped by and saw my family and showed some love,” Purdy said.
“And right after that, all right, now I’m starting to think about our opening plays that we’re going to come out and run. So I snapped into that kind of mindset.”
Purdy had a triumphant return home as part of his Pro Bowl season, during which he set 49ers franchise records with 4,280 passing yards and a 113.0 passer rating.
On that day in Glendale, Ariz., Purdy successfully flipped the switch into cold-blooded mode, throwing for 242 yards and four touchdowns in a 45-29 victory over the Cardinals.
“It’s real,” Purdy said. “You’re playing in front of the whole world, it seems like. If you’re not on top of your stuff mentally, you’ll get exposed. It’s the NFL. That’s the way it works and that’s the nature of the game.
“For me, you have to be in the mindset of being sharp every play and knowing what you’re doing. So, in that moment, yes, I was sort of back in the football mode of ‘I got to go be a surgeon.’”
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