49ERS Garcia irritated over lack of respect

The injured quarterback called this season's criticism "ridiculous."
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Jeff Garcia thinks 61 consecutive starts, three Pro Bowl appearances, 103 touchdown passes and about 8 miles of yards passing should be worth a little bit more to the San Francisco 49ers' most fickle fans.
Garcia returned to practice Wednesday, but Tim Rattay is all but certain to start in place of the three-time Pro Bowler when the 49ers play host to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
Before San Francisco's bye last weekend, Garcia was sidelined with a sprained ankle while Rattay led the 49ers to a 30-10 win over St. Louis. This encouraging development in San Francisco's unimpressive season spawned the predictable calls for a quarterback change on a 4-5 team.
Garcia doesn't know when he'll be ready to return, but he knows what he thinks about the fans and media -- and All-Pro receivers -- who doubt him.
"I think it's ridiculous," said Garcia, who has been just as inconsistent and erratic as the rest of his offense while throwing for 1,523 yards this season with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.
"The fickleness of things never surprises me. That's the way it is -- the fact that it's so easy to push somebody aside, that bothers me, but I just take it as a motivation to go out there and prove people wrong."
No controversy
Despite Terrell Owens' criticism of Garcia earlier in the season, the 49ers have no internal quarterback controversy yet. Coach Dennis Erickson says Garcia will regain his starting job as soon as he's healthy -- though Rattay's performance against the Rams was enough to convince Erickson to use caution and patience with Garcia.
Erickson even changed his stance after initially saying Garcia would start if he were healthy enough to dress for a game. Garcia probably will be in uniform against Pittsburgh, but he's expected to sit behind Rattay and rookie Ken Dorsey.
"Hopefully [Garcia] can be the third quarterback this week to get us out of the game, and possibly be ready to go [next week] against Green Bay," Erickson said. "I don't know. I do know right now that Tim will be the starter. Garcia might be the emergency guy. I just have to wait and see."
Rattay had the poise of a veteran in his first NFL start, and his teammates and coaches seem comfortable with him in the pocket.
Different styles
In particular, Rattay's calm under pressure contrasts sharply with Garcia, whose aggressive style won't allow him to stay still. Rattay credits most of his cool to 3 1/2 years of careful practice as one of Garcia's backups.
"Part of it's just you can't tell I'm going crazy," he said. "That's something you've got to be able to do as a quarterback. You don't want to be a robot, though. If you see something that you want, you've got to go after it."
After nearly three weeks of relative inactivity, Garcia hopes to be close to full strength for next week's game in Green Bay. He hopes there's finally a light at the end of an injury-plagued season that began with a back injury while lifting weights before training camp.
"It's helped me to heal up," Garcia said. "I was dealing with injuries on other parts of my body that were wearing me down. I'm excited to get back out on the field and move around a little bit. All that stuff starts to really take away from the reason why I'm playing football."