Traveling man O'Sullivan hopes to settle down as a 49er

Shapecity · Sep 6, 2008

There is another side of J.T. O'Sullivan. It's not the one he generally has been showing the media now that he has the task of quarterbacking the 49ers back to respectability and delivering the Bay Area out of its dark age of pro sports.

In news conferences since the start of training camp, he's been all business. Any reporter expecting him to say, "This is the greatest experience of my life," or "Well, folks, my last big game was against the Hamburg Sea Devils," was disappointed.

He rejected any question that had a Cinderella tinge to it. He often responded to questions by saying they were based on incorrect assumptions. Underdog? What underdog? The longtime understudy saw the 49ers' audition as a chance to show that he had every right to be a leading man.

Asked the other day in a group setting if his starting berth against Arizona in Sunday's season opener will be "a culmination of a good journey," he wanted none of it.

"I definitely don't think of it as a culmination," he said. "It is a step of the process of where I want to get and where this team wants to get. That's the first game."

His cool approach has turned some reporters off. A Los Angeles Times writer said, "The prickly O'Sullivan seems to have a chip on his shoulder the size of Alcatraz."

There is another side to O'Sullivan, the side that several friends described. Away from football, they say, he's quite a hoot.

"When he and I talk, it's never about football," said Charley Enos, one of his favorite receivers at UC Davis. "We talk about 'Lost' and all these abstract mysterious things that happen on this haunted island. He separates his business-like approach to football from his animated style off the field."

In a one-on-one interview, that steely-eyed grimness lifts, and he's engaging.

Yes, he's a huge "Lost" fan, he said. "I'm up to date on my Internet research on it." He urged the interviewer to get up to speed on the show. "It will change your life. Get the boxed set. Every time I feel like I know what's going on, I get so twisted and turned around that I have no idea what I'm doing."

He loves the Coen brothers movies and quotes freely from "The Big Lebowski." His favorite movie, though, is the 1987 surfer film "North Shore."

But spare any references to his riding a wave with the 49ers. He has a degree in English and disdains clichés almost as much as interceptions. His favorite story - though far from his favorite book - was "Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand's epic of people trying to survive in a society that hates them for their greatness.

"I'm not a real fan of the writing, but I gravitate toward stuff like that," he said. "I read it, like a lot of people, when they're first making decisions for themselves. A lot of it just stuck. It's not the easiest read in the world, but there are things about it that I value."

O'Sullivan's own epic tale is about to change, in more ways than one. He and college sweetheart, Laura Galdorisi, are getting married in April. They met in Spanish 3.

The only thing more important to him than football is family. His late father, John, a criminal attorney, and his mother, Margaret, were regulars in the south end zone seats at UC Davis, where J.T. (for John Thomas) set nearly every passing record.

As kids, he and younger brother Patrick competed at everything. Dad was their T-ball coach. The jersey numbers went 1 through 15, and J.T. took 14 because he "didn't want to deal with the biggest kid on the team (who got 15)." He's been No. 14 in almost everything ever since.

The last quarterback the 49ers had who went by his initials was Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle. He also wore 14 and knew what it was like to struggle for playing time.

O'Sullivan's most treasured 49ers memories are of the teams of the mid-1990s. He was a regular at their training camps in Rocklin (Placer County). "I knew all the tricks to get autographs," he said.

He was the big hitter on a Little League team that nearly made it to Williamsport. He would later bat .450 as a senior catcher at Jesuit High School in Carmichael (Sacramento County).

Football was his main game, though. "He was the most competitive player on the team," former Jesuit freshman coach Chris Bradford said. "Whenever we'd run wind sprints, he'd be first. He'd also stare you in the eye to make sure you knew he was first."

A two-time All-Metro League pick, "he was one of the most competitive student-athletes we've ever had," said Jesuit coach Dan Carmazzi, whose son, Gio, was a backup quarterback for the 49ers in 2000-01.

"We were playing a close game with Valley, and he threw two picks in the first half, but he threw a touchdown pass with a minute left to win the game. He dealt with adversity really well."

One thing he didn't have to deal with was college recruiters. Actually, that's not completely accurate. He was pursued from one end of the Yolo Causeway to the other. It was either Sacramento State or Davis, and he would have had to pay his way at either school.

Carmazzi said he had "no idea" why O'Sullivan wasn't targeted by Division I schools. "Perhaps they questioned his arm strength, but that wasn't a problem as far as I was concerned," he said.

O'Sullivan was perturbed at Davis when, as a redshirt freshman, he lost the backup spot behind senior Kevin Daft to Ken Kearns. "That fueled J.T.," co-offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said. "He worked on his mechanics. He spent every minute making himself the best he could be. The next spring they competed (with Kearns and Washington transfer Bryan Paul), and it wasn't even close."

In three years as the starter, he threw for 10,745 yards and 96 touchdowns.

"Even as a sophomore, he was confident in his ability to make big plays," Biggs said. "He conceptually understands what you're trying to do. It was like having a coach on the field."

For all the numbers O'Sullivan put up at Davis, it was a storm-saddled, low-scoring game in 2000 at Sacramento State that Aggies fans remember the most. "The rain was blowing sideways," Biggs said.

Midway through the third quarter, O'Sullivan told his teammates they were about to celebrate in the end zone. They were on their own 20-yard line at the time. He launched what Biggs calls "an incredible throw" to Onome Ojo, who raced to a touchdown. The Aggies won 13-10 and went on to an undefeated regular season.

A sixth-round draft pick by the Saints in 2002, O'Sullivan has played for eight NFL teams, in addition to two tours with the Frankfurt Galaxy of the now-defunct feeder league NFL Europa.

He's been dismissed more times than a telemarketer. "It's embarrassing," O'Sullivan said of each time he was fired. "That's how I look at it."

Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme and O'Sullivan have been close since their days with the Saints, and they rekindled their friendship during O'Sullivan's brief stint with the Panthers in 2006.

"I was not surprised one bit" that he won the 49ers job, Delhomme said. "He's extremely smart. Some guys just look good in shorts, but he plays better in games (than in practice). He sees everything around him."

O'Sullivan said he never set a deadline for himself to either make the NFL or try another line of work. He was all in.

"How did he last this long?" his agent, Steve Baker, said. "You always had the sense he would do whatever it took to get his shot. Making the NFL is so difficult. There's something in someone's blood to overcome the obstacles that get put in your path. He has it in great abundance."
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Source: SFGate

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Traveling man O'Sullivan hopes to settle down as a 49er

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