Jimmy Garoppolo makes NFL history behind Tom Brady, Joe Montana after Rams' win over Bears

The Los Angeles Rams beat the Chicago Bears in an overtime thriller to advance to the NFC Conference Championship game. Matthew Stafford wasn't at his best, but he led the game-winning drive and took care of the ball.

The Rams are now playing in the NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks, and while all of the attention will be on Stafford and the starters, Jimmy Garoppolo is joining some elite company.

As QBgami on Twitter/x posted, Garoppolo is making his 7th ever NFL Conference Championship game, which will put him right behind Tom Brady and Joe Montana for the most ever in NFL history. It's a strange, fitting record for Garoppolo.

Jimmy Garoppolo continues strange NFL career with 7th Conference Championship game appearance

While Garoppolo isn't going to play in this game, barring an injury to Stafford, the 34-year-old quarterback will still be active for his 7th Conference Championship game ever.

Only Brady and Montana have more appearances, which makes Garoppolo's part of NFL history all the more odd. The best quarterbacks in the NFL have this record, and while Garoppolo isn't terrible, he's not nearly as good as either of these QBs.

There have been seven instances of Garoppolo's team making the Conference Championship game. This year's Rams team is his seventh, and only one outside of two other teams.

His other Conference Championship appearances have come with the San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots, both teams of the two quarterbacks ahead of him on the all-time Conference Championship game appearance list.

More: This is what we know about Matthew Stafford's retirement plans with Rams

Garoppolo was on the 2022 San Francisco 49ers, and while he wasn't active, he was part of the team that season. In 2021, Garoppolo was the starter for San Francisco, and he and the 49ers lost to the Rams.

His lone win in the Conference title game came in 2019, when he led a 13-3 49ers team to the Super Bowl before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The three other Conference Championship game appearances came with the Patriots from 2014 to 2016, when the Patriots won two Super Bowls and made three-straight title games.

Garoppolo's career has been one of the more strange ones in league history. He's 43-21 as a starter over his 12-year NFL career. This record should prove how great a player is, but in Garoppolo's case, it's mostly been about luck as a backup and a few solid years as a starter.

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