49ers rally behind CJ Beathard, starting for the first time The 49ers’ third-string quarterback, playing a year to the week of his younger brother’s murder, started his first game in 790 days. It came in the same venue and against the same team as his last start all the way back in October of 2018, a week before Beathard lost the backup job to Nick Mullens.
But as difficult as being demoted to third string can be for a former third-round draft pick, Beathard’s life away from football was far more challenging. He came into Saturday’s tilt against the Arizona Cardinals with a new haircut that had special meaning. Beathard over the last week got his long, reddish-blonde locks cut after growing them out in honor of his brother, Clayton.
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Said head coach Kyle Shanahan during the week of Beathard’s haircut: “It was almost like he had accepted some stuff and then he’s going to honor his brother in a different way.”
Perhaps beating the Cardinals on Sunday, 20-12, was Beathard’s new way to honor his fallen brother. The win improved the 49ers to 6-9 on the season, and although they were eliminated from postseason contention last week, Saturday’s victory proved important for the team’s psyche, and for Beathard ahead of his looming free agency in the spring.
Beathard found out he would be the 49ers’ starting quarterback this week around the one-year anniversary of his brother’s death. Clayton Beathard, 21, was fatally stabbed outside of a nightclub in Nashville on Dec. 21, 2019, hours before the 49ers had a key late-season game against the Rams.
Honoring Clayton Beathard
After the game Saturday, Beathard wore a customized jacket with the word “King” etched on the right side. King was Clayton’s middle name. On the left, a picture of Clayton in his football uniform. He was a quarterback at Long Island University. The jacket was sent to Beathard by Clayton’s pastor in New York.
“It dropped me to tears when I saw it. It was really cool,” said Beathard, who is deeply religious.
“It’s got a lot of meaning for me. First and foremost, the king is our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and it has a lot of irony with me just because my brother’s middle name was King.”
Against Arizona, C.J. Beathard threw a career-high three touchdown passes, helping to throw a wrench in the Cardinals’ plans for a postseason berth. A win over San Francisco would have gone a long way toward the Cardinals getting the new No. 7 seed in the NFC West playoffs, but a loss put the Chicago Bears in the driver’s seat.
Beathard found fullback Kyle Juszczyk for a pair of touchdown passes, and also hit running back Jeff Wilson Jr. for a 21-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter for a score. Beathard was steady throughout and didn’t turn the ball over, save for a fumble as his arm was hit late in the first half in a play that looked like an incompletion.