Brock Purdy met his childhood hero on Sunday when Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino stopped by to say hello during pregame warmups in Miami.

“It happened quickly. We started to warm up and he walked over and said, “I want to meet you; Good luck and tell your dad I said hello,” Purdy said. “That was really great. It was cool of him to do that.”

But instead of having a memorable day, Purdy suffered another devastating blow during the longest period of his life.

Purdy had completed a 17-yard pass to Jauan Jennings at the 49ers’ 47-yard line just before the two-minute warning, with the 49ers trailing 22-17. They all had their timeouts, George Kittle looked like George Kittle and Deebo Samuel made tackles and fought for yards like the Deebo Samuel of old.

It was first-and-10. Enough time for Purdy to prove in the fourth quarter that he can lead a team to victory, which is one of the few things he hasn’t done in his third season. Purdy, operating from the shotgun, attempted to throw to Jennings over the middle.

Instead, 38-year-old Calais Campbell crashed the potential winning party as Purdy’s off-balance throw flew straight to Kader Kahou, who was able to intercept it.

Three plays later, De’Von Achane ran 50 yards for a Dolphins touchdown and the 49ers had fallen to 6-9 with a 29-17 loss on a day in which they were eliminated from the playoffs before kickoff.

Purdy will not make the playoffs for the third time this season. Will not play in the NFC Championship Game for the third time. I won’t go to the Super Bowl a second time.

And like Marino, who only played in one Super Bowl after the 1984 season, losing 38-16 to the 49ers, he won’t win a Super Bowl either. At least not this year. Maybe never. There are no guarantees in the NFL.

“I tried to put it over the defender and just got hit and couldn’t throw the ball I wanted to,” Purdy said. “I left it short and the guy got it.”

A week after Purdy struggled to throw the ball in the rain, he looked a lot like his 2022-23 self until the interception. He was 26 of 40 for 313 yards and had touchdown passes of 16 yards to Samuel and 2 yards to Eric Saubert. His 25 yards on the scramble were good enough to give the 49ers the lead on a day when they had a fourth-string tailback in Patrick Taylor Jr.

Instead, the Purdy debate was reignited. He’s under contract for just over $1 million in 2025, but no one expects him to play for that. His Miami counterpart Tua Tagovaiola signed a four-year, $53.1 million extension on Sunday and it wasn’t entirely clear who the best quarterback on the field was.

It’s worth remembering that Purdy doesn’t turn 25 for another five days. He came tantalizingly close to the top of the mountain, suffering a serious elbow injury in the NFC Championship Game two seasons ago and losing to Patrick Mahomes in overtime in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.

He won four playoff games. He was a central figure and a point man on offense who held his teammates up while his teammates held him up. And now this. The quarterback of a 6-9 team, something that never happened to Steve Young or Joe Montana for the most quarterback-centric team in football.

“It wasn’t consistently clean football,” Purdy said. “I just feel like we hurt ourselves on offense and when the defense gets a stop, we have to go out and capitalize. We did that really well last year – the last couple of years – and we played team football for four quarters and felt like we were pretty dominant. This year was just a stroke of luck.”

Purdy is guilty of being the quarterback of a team that has lost five of its last six games — although he missed one in Green Bay because of shoulder soreness. He probably got too much credit when the 49ers won, and now he’s getting too much blame because that’s what happens at the most difficult position in professional sports.

Ultimately, the 49ers did not give Purdy 11 penalties for 90 yards, many of them in the rushing variety before the snap.

It wasn’t Purdy’s fault that Ricky Pearsall lined up incorrectly twice during illegal formation calls. It wasn’t Purdy’s fault that left tackle Jaylon Moore left in the third quarter with a quadriceps injury and left guard Aaron Banks left a short time later with a possible season-ending MCL injury. It wasn’t Purdy’s fault that the 49ers committed three personal defensive fouls that allowed Miami to extend drives as the game was decided. Or that Jake Moody missed another makeable field goal attempt from 41 yards.

Purdy has refused to use injuries as an alibi all season.

“It doesn’t matter who’s out there,” Purdy said. “We have what it takes to move the chains and win and score points. That’s my attitude. That’s why I’m hard on myself. This is the NFL, man. I know that I am capable of persevering and winning games like this, regardless of who is out there.

“Right now I just have to be better, take advantage of what the defense is giving me and develop the guys as we go along. I’m learning a lot. While it hurts to go through this, I still have full confidence in what we can do in the future. We still have two games left in which we can show who we are.”

Unfortunately for the 49ers, their final win-loss record shows that they were the most disappointing team in franchise history based on the expectation of being a Super Bowl contender.

That’s something no quarterback wants on their resume, but there’s no sign that Shanahan Purdy has gotten sour like he did with Jimmy Garoppolo. And that’s the only way Purdy doesn’t get a contract that puts him anywhere near Tagovaiola and others.