Joe Montana turns 68: Five interesting facts to know about 49ers legend on his birthday

There was little debate about who was the greatest quarterback in NFL history on January 28, 1990, shortly after Joe Montana and the 49ers made mincemeat of the Broncos’ defense in Super Bowl XXIV. The decisive victory gave San Francisco its fourth Super Bowl victory since 1981. The victory also gave Montana a record third Super Bowl MVP award, as the man known as “Joe Cool” joined Terry Bradshaw as the only defender boasting a 4-0 record. as the starting quarterback in the Super Bowl.

Three decades after winning his last Super Bowl, Montana was back in the big game as he was celebrated as one of the NFL’s 100 greatest players during a pregame ceremony. And while other great quarterbacks have come and gone since he threw his last NFL pass a quarter-century ago, Montana remains in the conversation as one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history.

In celebration of his 68th birthday (he was born on June 11, 1956), we decided to list five things you might not know about Montana, a player who, as the late Stuart Scott would say, was cooler than the other side of the pillow .

1. Member of the Western Pennsylvania “Cradle of Quarterbacks”

Western Pennsylvania has produced some of the greatest quarterbacks in league history, a list that includes Montana, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. A native of Monongahela, Pennsylvania (which is about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh), Montana, who started high school for two years, was named a Parade All-American as a senior. Despite receiving a number of basketball scholarships, Montana chose to play quarterback at Notre Dame. A member of the school’s 1977 national championship team, Montana offered a foreshadowing of what was to come in the NFL during his final college game. In the 1979 Cotton Bowl, Montana, who played despite suffering from hypothermia, led the Irish to 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, leading Notre Dame to a 35–34 victory.

Six years later, Montana faced western Pennsylvania native Dan Marino. at Super Bowl XIX. Marino, the league’s reigning MVP, got off to a hot start, throwing a touchdown pass and giving the Dolphins an early lead. Undeterred, Montana and the 49ers responded with enthusiasm, with Montana leading the 49ers on three scoring drives in the second quarter to give San Francisco a 28–16 halftime lead. Montana, who threw for a Super Bowl-record 333 yards (while also rushing for 59 yards, a Super Bowl record for a quarterback), sealed the victory — and his second Super Bowl MVP award — with this fourth-quarter touchdown . pass to Roger Craig. Montana and Marino would combine to throw for 651 yards, a Super Bowl record at the time.

2. An early inspiration for Brady

Tom Brady, the man who many believe has surpassed Montana as the greatest quarterback of all time, was a huge Montana fan as a kid growing up in San Mateo, California. In fact, 4-year-old Brady was inside Candlestick Park on January 10, 1982, when Montana found Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone this gave the 49ers a 28-27 victory over the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game. The play, forever remembered as “The Catch,” propelled the 49ers to their first Super Bowl victory, a 26-21 victory over the Bengals two weeks later at Detroit’s Silverdome.

“I was lucky enough to grow up in the Bay Area at that time,” Brady recently said when remembering his time as a 49ers fan. “I will always remember being at all the Super Bowl rallies, and my mom pulling me out of school and banging pots on El Camino after they won the Super Bowl.

On February 5, 2017, Brady surpassed Montana by winning his fifth Super Bowl victory as the Patriots’ starting quarterback. Fittingly, Brady pulled off a Montana-like comeback to pull out the victory, as New England overcame a 28-3 deficit to defeat the Falcons in overtime, 34-28. Several years later, Brady, who is now the proud owner of seven Super Bowl rings and five Super Bowl MVP trophies, stood alongside his NFL hero as a member of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary Team.

3. No interceptions in the Super Bowl

In four Super Bowl games (and 122 pass attempts), Montana has never thrown an interception in the big game. In the Super Bowl competition, Montana completed 68% of his passes for 1,142 yards, with 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions. While his numbers in Super Bowl XVI were unremarkable (he threw for 157 yards, nearly half what his counterpart, Cincinnati’s Ken Anderson, managed on a missed attempt), Montana’s last three Super Bowls have been a work of art. .

Four years after defeating Marino’s Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, Montana threw for a Super Bowl-record 357 yards. in a rematch against the Bengals. Trailing 16–13 with just over three minutes remaining, Montana led the 49ers on a 92-yard drive that culminated in his 10-yard touchdown pass to John Taylor. Ironically, this is the only Super Bowl in which Montana no win MVP; the award went to Jerry Rice, whose 215 receiving yards that day remains a Super Bowl record. Montana would end up winning his third MVP a year later after throwing a record five touchdown passes in demolishing the Broncos in San Francisco. In fact, the 55 points scored by the 49ers in the game, as well as the 45-point margin of victory, remain Super Bowl records.

Montana came close to throwing an interception in the Super Bowl. Trailing 13-6 early in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXIII, Bengals cornerback Lewis Billups threw down what would have been a Montana interception in his own end zone. Montana, as he often did, made the most of his second opportunity, hitting Rice for the game-tying touchdown pass two plays later.

4. Giants problem is central to QB ‘controversy’

As the 49ers’ quarterback, Montana won nearly three times as many playoff games (14) as he lost (five). Along with his 4-0 record in Super Bowls, Montana posted a 2-0 record in the playoffs against Mike Ditka’s Bears, defeating Chicago in the 1984 and 1988 NFC title games. touchdowns against the Bears in the ’88 title game, played in subzero conditions at Chicago’s Soldier Field, is one of the most underrated performances of Montana’s career.

If there was one NFC team that seemed to give Montana and the 49ers fits, it was the New York Giants, led by head coach Bill Parcells, defensive coordinator Bill Belichick and an aggressive defense that featured Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson along with professional players Carl Banks, Leonard Marshall and Jim Burt. After defeating the Giants in the ’81 and ’84 postseasons, Montana and the 49ers were beaten by the Giants in the ’85 and ’86 postseasons, as San Francisco was defeated in those games by a combined score of 66-6. In the ’86 loss to the Giants, Montana was knocked out of the game by Burt as New York came away with the game 49-3, en route to winning the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.

The hits seemed to be taking a toll on Montana, who missed 10 games due to injury during the ’86 and ’87 seasons. Against the Vikings in the second round of the ’87 playoffs, Montana was replaced by Steve Young, who was acquired through a trade with the Buccaneers last offseason. Young’s success against the Vikings (albeit on a losing attempt) sparked a quarterback controversy that would not be resolved until coach Bill Walsh chose to stick with Montana after watching Young and the 49ers blow a 23–0 lead to the Cardinals in Week 10 of the ’88 season. With Montana back under center, Walsh’s team would only lose more games that season, as the 49ers would defeat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII, Walsh’s final game as head coach of San Francisco.

With Young playing occasionally, Montana was the team’s unquestioned starter during the ’89 and ’90 seasons. Playing the best football of his career, Montana led San Francisco to another Super Bowl victory in 1989, before leading San Francisco to a game of his third consecutive Super Bowl appearance in 1990. But against the Giants in the NFC title game, Montana was eliminated from the game by Marshall with the 49ers holding a slim lead. With Montana out, San Francisco committed a costly turnover that led to the Giants kicking the game-winning field goal as time expired.

An elbow injury suffered during the 1991 preseason kept Montana out for most of the next two seasons. Montana’s injury opened the door for Young, who won league MVP honors in 1992 while leading San Francisco to a Super Bowl game. With Young now firmly supplanted as the 49ers’ starting quarterback, Montana resurfaced in Kansas City, where he led the Chiefs to their first playoff victory in 24 seasons during his first season with his new team. Montana led the Chiefs back to the playoffs in 1994 before hanging up his cleats for good. That season, Young, who lost to Montana’s Chiefs during the regular season, would lead the 49ers to their fifth Super Bowl title, with Young breaking Montana’s Super Bowl record for touchdown passes in San Francisco’s 49–26 victory over the Chargers.

5. The John Candy Story

Younger fans may not know all the details of John Candy’s infamous story in Montana during the closing stages of Super Bowl XXIII. With 3:04 remaining, and with the 49ers backed up to their own 8-yard line and trailing the Bengals by three points, Montana shared an interesting observation with his teammates as they entered the huddle, a huddle that was made even longer. by a TV Timeout.

Harris Barton, the 49ers’ right tackle at the time, remembered what happened in the huddle during an NFL Films documentary about the 1988 49ers.

“Joe looks at me and says, ‘Hey, H,’” Barton said. “I say, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Take a look… Look down there in the other end zone. Did you see him?… There’s John Candy down there in the end zone.’ And sure enough, the whole group turns and looks over there, and there’s John Candy eating popcorn on the other side of the stadium. We were like, ‘Yeah, that’s John Candy, look at that?’ And then the referee blows the whistle and the play begins.”

With Candy and the rest of America watching, Montana calmly led the 49ers 92 yards in 11 plays for the winning touchdown. The play, as well as its moment in the huddle, are now part of Super Bowl lore.