Bob Garcia, Jeff Garcia's dad is reporting that Jeff can't run forward.

Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia and his father, Bob Garcia, are very close. They talk regularly about life and football, Jeff Garcia told joeBucsFan.com in October. Dad is a legendary high school and college football coach in the Garcias hometown of Gilroy, Calif.

Their usually private relationship has been a bit of an open book this season. Weekly, Bob Garcia has been interviewed extensively by the Gilroy Dispatch for a football column about Jeff Garcia, the NFL and local prep and college football.

Bob Garcia hasn’t held back much all season when talking about Jeff’s mindset and condition, and in October Jeff told JoeBucsFan.com that he’s just fine with his dad speaking his mind.

On Thursday, Josh Koehn, sports edtor of the Gilroy Dispatch was kind enough to send JoeBucsFan.com the full transcript of Bob Garcia’s interview this week.

In the transcript, Bob Garcia says Jeff could backpedal and throw but not run forward during his pregame warm-up against Atlanta and was literally in tears on the phone with him right after giving it a go.

The elder Garcia also said Jeff Garcia has the exact same calf injury as during the preseason, which contradicts reports in the Tampa Bay media.

There are other comments that don’t bode well for Garcia’s return on Sunday against the Chargers. 

Below is a majority of the interview transcript, including all talk about Jeff Garcia.

Joe will share more details with Steve Duemig on 620 AM, The Sports Animal, on Friday about 4 p.m.

G: Yeah, Jeff called me last week, Wednesday. They were out there at
practice and he was just jogging, and all of a sudden he came up and
there’s something wrong with his calf. I guess the same one he hurt in
the preseason and it started really bothering him. It was a
walk-through so he was able to walk through everything. And on
Thursday, they kind of taped it so it wouldn’t be much pressure on the
heel. He said he was able to throw the ball some and move around a
little bit so he still thought he had an opportunity to play. Sunday
morning he went out there and he couldn’t. He said, ‘I can throw the
ball, dad, but I can’t run forward. I can’t.’

K: That’s weird.

G: Yeah, my nephew, my sister’s son, is a doctor at one of the
hospitals in San Jose, and he said it’s gotta be something deep inside
to cause it to come back. That muscle, that calf muscle … it might have
been a real deep tear and he said, ‘Hey, it probably never healed
right.’

K: So, it’s the exact same injury?

G: Yeah, yeah.

K: When did he know for sure he wasn’t going to be able to play Sunday?

G: Sunday morning.

K: So, right before the game.

G: Yeah, right before the game he called up and the guy’s a man, he’s
38-years old. Boy, I tell you, he was in tears.

K: Really?

G: He was really disappointed.

G: I said, ‘You know what, what are you gonna do? You can’t do anything about it. If you can’t run, if you’re not ready to go 100 percent, there’s no way you can play, Jeff.’You know what? (Brian) Griese came in and did a good job. I don’t know if those sacks, especially that last one in overtime, if it would have been any different. Who knows?

K: Does Jeff think he’s going to be out this next week?

G: He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know.

K: Wow.

G: You gotta play it by ear. He’s gonna continue to get treatment and
everything. The last time all he could do was stay off that thing and
it took about two weeks of staying off of it.

K: The Bucs don’t really have two weeks do they?

G: No. Now their backs are against the wall and they have to win their next two and hope that somebody is gonna get knocked off. Or else it’s going end up a tie and it’s going to go to scores and so on.

K: I think right now, if they were able to win their last two games,
they would get that six-spot from what I saw on TV last night. But it’s going to be close because they got the Chargers this week, who have their backs against the wall, too.

G: That’s right. Every game now, hey, I thought Tampa Bay had a shot to take care of Atlanta. They did a pretty good job considering what happened the week before at Carolina, but still that guy (Michael) Turner ran for a few yards against them.

K: He had 175 yards.

G: Yeah, and he ran over some people. There were some missed tackles. Oh, whatever.

K: Jeff’s going to be getting treatment on his calf all week, and a lot of people don’t understand what that means because they hear that these guys are putting in long hours, but what are some of the things Jeff is going to have to do this week to get that calf as ready as possible?

G: The majority of the time he’ll still go to all the meetings and
probably all the practice, but he wont participate in them. And then
he’ll have to go in (for treatment) before practice and stay after
practice. They’ll put the stem on him, it’s the thing that breaks up
the stuff and gets the blood flowing in there. He’ll probably utilize
the hot and cold, whatever, he’ll still be working out completely on
all the other parts of the body but they’ll really concentrate on
targeting that one area. I don’t know what’ll be the best thing they
decide for him to do, but it will be something.

K: How many hours a day do you think he’ll spend in the training room.

G: It’ll probably be at least three or four hours a day. And then
there’s all the other things.

K: Did you get the sense at all, with how upset he was before the game Sunday, that this could be something that’s going to last more than just this one game?

G: He said he’s hoping he’ll be ready to go this weekend. You know, I’m sure every athlete has that feeling, ‘Hey, I’ll be ready to go next weekend.’ But you got no control over a muscle or if something is really torn inside. It may take you two weeks, three weeks until you’re ready to go full strength. And it’s really sad because him and Antonio Bryant were really starting to connect, had some pretty good games. He wasn’t turning the ball over. There were some good things happening.

K: You know, a guy like (Tampa Bay receiver) Antonio Bryant, he made
comments recently after his big Monday night 200 yard, 2 TD
performance. He got upset because Emmitt Smith and Trent Dilfer, they
were saying that he’s got off the field issues and he needs to get his
life right. And by all accounts, he hasn’t been in trouble since he got
a DUI while with the Niners. And [Bryant] said, ‘Who are these guys to
be criticizing me?’ What do you think of that?

G: It’s true. And you know what, he has had to get his life squared away,otherwise he wouldn’t be playing in the NFL. And he sat out and paid the price for whatever he did, whether it was the DUI or the alcohol or whatever. You know what? Everybody has problems, but those guys can sit up there and say he’s gotta get his life squared away. Well are they living with him? Do you know what he’s doing to get his life squared away? The guy is probably doing everything possible so he can stay eligible to play, so I don’t think those guys have the right to say anything.

K: Let’s talk about another thing, the Niners barely lose at Miami —

G: You know what, that’s a reflection of the coach. The guy has made
all the difference in the world. They played a hell of a ballgame
against Miami, a team that’s been hot and playing really well, has
things going. Aside form that last play, they can look back and say,
whoever that right tackle is, (Barry) Sims, we should have given him
some help. (Jerry) Porter went over to the right side and that was his
only sack of the game. But you know what? If they would have made that block, completed a pass and got a score, it’s a different scenario.

K: Ann Killion for the Mercury news wrote a column (Monday) that Vernon Davis said if he had been in the game he would’ve been able to block Porter.

G: Well, you know what, that’s true and it’s water under the bridge. It happened. Porter basically played on the left side, and then in that package he switched over to the other side. So, I mean they were trying to utilize him because he’s their sack leader and a big-play potential guy. He had been playing on the other side against (Joe) Staley. The tackle had been doing a pretty good job on him and with the back coming out and chipping him. But it just so happens that with the formation with all wideouts and no running back, that probably called for Davis to be out. Why? I don’t know. If you lined him up, Davis would probably be the fastest of everybody on that team, including the defensive backs and the receivers. If it’s supposed to be an offensive set, why isn’t he in there? But then again, I heard something about his hands. But I don’t know. He dropped that one on the sidelines. I think it was the Examiner mentioned something about his hands. But I was under the impression he had pretty good hands.

K: Well, he’s dropped a lot of balls in his time but he’s coming around
and he’s definitely a solid player they should hang on to.

G: Hey, they were in the right defense and maybe the Niners were in the wrong offense. They lost. But you know what? They battled and showed a lot of (Mike) Singletary traits. I think they’re moving ahead, I really do.

K: Now the Raiders game, that was an ugly start and then they kind of
came around. I was watching the game and I couldn’t tell if JaMarcus
Russell is being sold out by his receivers dropping balls at key
moments or if he just cant overcome those kind of mistakes. What do you
think?

G: When things are going bad, everything goes bad. And when things are going good, everything goes good. And, consequently, things have been going bad for the Oakland Raiders for quite a while now. And it’s not just one guy. Maybe Russell threw the ball pretty well but his receivers didn’t catch it. Another time, Russell doesn’t throw it well and the receiver would catch everything he throws at them. I don’t know. There’s a team there that — they need to get somebody, whether it’s going to be (Tom) Cable or not, who knows? Is Davis still going to be involved? They just need to wipe the slate clean and come in with an attitude that this is the way it’s going to be, and go from there.

There’s just too many little things (going wrong). Hell, the first five drives the Patriots scored and they said they would have scored on the sixth one but it went off the guy’s helmet and the Raiders intercepted it.

K: Yeah, it was pretty ugly.

G: But, then again, they came back and scored a couple times against a pretty good Patriot defense. I don’t know if it was all the rain or whatever, a lot of things happen. Along the same lines of other football things (going bad), the end of Arena football, closing down it’s doors for the year.

K: What do you think of that?

G: I thought they were in pretty good financial shape. Probably because I only read the local paper about the SaberCats, but they have a pretty good following. They pack people in there.

K: Yeah, I went to a game. It’s a pretty lively crowd. They have the
SaberKitten cheerleaders, who basically outnumber the players, they
have a lot of bells and whistles to keep people excited.

G: There’s some pretty good owners at other clubs. Bon Jovi, and what’s that other quarterback over in Denver?

K: John Elway

G: Yeah.

K: Did you ever see a championship ring for the SaberCats. I met the
wife, the owner, Muni Fry, and she has this ring — it was the size of
my fist. They really treated their players great. San Jose wasn’t one
of the clubs in trouble financially, apparently. It was the other
clubs.

G: But there was a lot of other clubs that were having a tough time.

G: And I guess Monte (Kiffin) is headed to Tennessee to be with his son Lane Kiffin).

K: Yeah, that was kind of a foregone conclusion. He’s going to make his son look a lot better and provide just one more tough SEC defense. What did you think of (Sam) Bradford winning the Heisman?

G: It was surprising. I really thought (Tim) Tebow would have gotten it.

K: He got the most first place votes, but Colt McCoy came in second.
Here’s the crazy part: Over 100 people that voted for the Heisman, out
of 900, left Tebow off their ballot.

G: Really? Why was that?

K: I have no idea. You gottta get him at least second or third, if not
first.

G: Definitely. I didn’t realize that. And that’s what hurt him, huh?

K: But, really, the Heisman Trophy doesn’t matter that much. It’s an
individual award for whoever is on the best team. And the quarterback
position is always made to look better with good players around him.

G: That’s true. All those teams had great players around those quarterbacks.

K: What do you think of this whole big controversy in Dallas this last
week? I mean, obviously, they got the win so everybody can say
everything is fine, but ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that Terrell Owens
and Jason Witten get into a confrontation, and Tony Romo likes Witten
more than he likes TO.

G: Well, in crucial situations, who’s going to catch the ball? You’re
going to go with the guy who’s consistent. A ball is close to Witten —
he’s catching everything. Terrell Owens, he makes some great catches
and stuff, but hey, a lot of times he drops them.

K: That’s true.

G: That’s a big deal, you know. There’s still a rotten apple in that barrel. There really is. And things like this will always come up. It will smooth over and everything, but as soon as something (bad) happens the smoke will start rising again.

K: When Jeff played with TO, how often did he have to deal with this
kind of stuff? Was it often?

G: All the time. As a matter of fact, coming off the football field,
the coaches would say, ‘Hey, how come you threw the ball there, Jeff?’
‘Hey, it was man-to-man. Terrell was supposed to keep going. He
stopped.’

And then they’d go, ‘Oh, that’s right. Hey, Terrell, that was that
play. You’re supposed to keep going.’

‘Oh, shut up.’

He would tell the coach, ‘Shut up. I’ll do what I want to do.’ It was
unbelievable.

K: Was that Greg Knapp, the offensive coordinator?

G: Yeah. And I would say, ‘Jeff, really, the coach didn’t say
anything?’ And he would say, ‘Yeah.’

K: So, TO would really tell his coaches to shut up in San Francisco and
they wouldn’t do anything?

G: Yeah. Hey, listen, I’m on the cell phone and there’s a highway
patrol or sheriff behind me so I better get going.

K: OK, Bobby, you have a good one and we’ll talk real soon.