A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel”

Where: HBO, tonight, 10

The San Francisco 49ers are 4-1 and their quarterback, Jeff Garcia, has emerged as a star. Just where Garcia came from is one of the stories on this edition of “Real Sports.”

Garcia tells correspondent James Brown about the tragedies early in his life that made him stronger mentally and emotionally. A year before Garcia was born, his parents lost twins who were born prematurely. In 1977, when Garcia was 7, his younger brother Jason drowned. Less than a year later, his sister Kimberly died of internal injuries suffered in a fall.

Viewers will learn about Garcia’s difficult journey to the NFL. After high school in Gilroy, the only coach who recruited him was his father, the coach at Gavilan, a small junior college in Gilroy. After a year at Gavilan, he went to San Jose State, where he impressed Bill Walsh, then the coach at Stanford.

After five years with the Calgary Stampeders, whom he led to a Grey Cup championship in 1998, Garcia was signed by the 49ers. By then, Walsh was the general manager.

The lead story examines the damaging effects of ephedrine. It focuses on a young man who suffered a heart attack while using a dietary supplement containing ephedrine and was left permanently disabled.

Another story deals with sports’ role in the civil unrest in Northern Ireland, and the fourth segment profiles Mark Bingham, who was one of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11. Bingham, one of those who attacked the hijackers and prevented the plane from reaching its target, was an openly gay athlete.