The Men Who Made The Game: Joe Montana

By Andrew Symes, Lead NFL Writer

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too”

The opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” could have been written for ‘Joe Cool’. No matter what the situation, he was the coolest man on the field, and never was this more evident than during the closing stages of Super Bowl XXIII.

Down by three points, with a little over three minutes left on the clock, his San Francisco 49er teammates were shell-shocked. They had driven down the field on their previous possession with the game tied, only for their kicker, Mike Cofer, to miss with a 49 yard field goal attempt. The Cincinnati Bengals took over possession and kicked a field goal of their own for a 16–13 lead. To make matters worse, the 49ers had picked up a penalty on the ensuing kick off and were 92 yards away from the Bengals endzone. This was the moment that ‘Joe Cool’ shone through and uttered an immortal line that relaxed his entire offensive huddle.

But to arrive at this point in the story of Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. requires a look into what made him the most unflappable player to ever play in the National Football League.

He was born on June 11th 1956, the only son of Joe Sr. and Theresa, in the blue-collar cradle of Pennsylvania. The state is synonymous with great quarterbacks from similar hard-working backgrounds: Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and Joe Namath to name a few, but it has never produced one so great as Montana.

Montana had a penchant for sports, playing baseball, basketball and football from a young age. Encouraged by his father, he showed great promise, and basketball was originally a serious pursuit for him. He was an all-state player, which resulted in him being offered a basketball scholarship for North Carolina State University, something which sorely tempted him. The lure of playing football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, however, and the chance to follow in the footsteps of his boyhood idol Terry Hanratty proved too strong.

His college career was far from straight-forward. Montana had to adhere to the Notre Dame policy of not playing freshmen, which effectively made him the seventh-string quarterback.

He was still not deemed ready to be a starter in his sophomore year in 1975, but even with limited opportunities, he was able to demonstrate the characteristics that would make him so great. Down 14–6 with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Montana entered a game against North Carolina. He was on the field for a total of just 72 seconds, but led the Fighting Irish to a 21–14 victory, passing for an astonishing 129 yards. This comeback proved to be the first of many, but it was not enough to yet win him the starting job.

A week later, Notre Dame played Air Force, and were trailing in the fourth quarter for a second consecutive week, this time down 30–10. Montana replaced the starting quarterback Rick Slager in the fourth quarter once again, and took the game in his stride with three touchdown drives, to lead Notre Dame to a 31–30 victory. He was starting to build a name for himself as “The Comeback Kid”.

Montana separated his shoulder in the offseason, resulting in a lost 1976 season. He redshirted, to ensure he kept his college eligibility for two more seasons. Yet when he returned in 1977, he was still third on the depth chart, his previous heroics apparently forgotten. He played no part in the Fighting Irish’s first two games, which had produced a 1–1 start to the season. In their third game against Purdue, starting quarterback Rusty Lisch struggled and was replaced by backup Gary Forystek. When Forystek suffered multiple injuries on a single play, Lisch was reinserted. You could have forgiven Montana for thinking his chance would never come, but eventually, in the fourth quarter, coach Dan Devine turned to his third-stringer with eleven minutes to go and a 24–14 deficit. The result was becoming predictable: another come-from-behind win for Montana — a 31–24 victory. Finally, in his fourth year at Notre Dame, he was named starter. They won the next nine games and the 11–1 record resulted in a Cotton Bowl win and a National title for the Fighting Irish.

That was the highlight of his college career and in 1979, Montana was ready for the big time. He was a national champion, a fourth quarter wonder and had led one of the biggest colleges in the USA. Yet his perceived lack of athletic ability and only above-average arm strength left him languishing in the third round of the draft, where Bill Walsh and the San Francisco 49ers took a chance on him.

The 49ers were one of the lowliest franchises in the NFL, a perennial loser who simply made up the numbers. Montana sat for his first season, learning the ropes of Walsh’s offense as the 49ers slumped to a 2–14 record. Still, Walsh let his young quarterback sit on the bench until half way through the 1980 season. Montana was starting when the 49ers hosted the winless New Orleans Saints. The Saints blew the 49ers out of the water to the tune of a 35–7 half time lead, and still lead 35–21 going into the fourth quarter. But that Montana magic that had been evident at Notre Dame came through, leading the 49ers to tie the game at 35–35, before winning in overtime 38–35. It was the first fourth-quarter comeback of Montana’s NFL career. He would go on to record another 30 over the next 13 seasons in the league.

That 1980 season resulted in a 6–10 record. Montana was now used to the league, and so in 1981, the 49ers began to take it by storm. Montana was the perfect quarterback for Walsh’s West Coast offense. He possessed unrivalled timing, quick reads, intensive study and, above all, unparalleled calmness to analyse every situation.

“What I have is recognition. The ability to see everything on the field. Position the other team to death. Keep the ball alive and keep it moving forward. Then, at the right moment, knock them on their ass. Own the field” — Joe Montana

During that 1981 season, Montana led the 49ers to a 13–3 record, and to the cusp of Super Bowl XVI. They were still regarded as an upstart team and started the NFC title game as underdogs at home to Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys. The story looks familiar already. Montana took over the ball, down 27–21 with five minutes remaining, knowing only a touchdown would be enough to see the 49ers over the line. Montana led his team on a 14 play, 83 yard drive, culminating in what was simply to become known as ‘The Catch’. With under a minute remaining, and the ball on the Dallas six-yard line, Montana rolled right out of the pocket. Four Cowboys players chased him down but, throwing off-balance to the back of the endzone, Montana hit receiver Dwight Clark for the game-winning touchdown, sending the 49ers to their first ever Super Bowl. History now looks at this as the passing of the torch from Landry’s Cowboys to Walsh’s 49ers as the dominant team in the NFC. Two weeks later, Montana won the MVP in the Super Bowl as the 49ers beat the Bengals 26–21, becoming only the second quarterback to win a college national title and a Super Bowl, following in the footsteps of fellow Pennsylvania native Joe Namath.

It would take until the 1984 season for him to once again find himself back in the biggest game. With a 15–1 record, the 49ers became the first team to register 15 regular season wins, and after easing through the playoffs, Montana came face-to-face with the leagues hottest young quarterback — Dan Marino. Marino had thrown for 48 touchdowns in the regular season, an average of three per game, and a record that would stand until 2007. But once again, it was Montana who came up clutch in the big game. He led the 49ers to a 38–16 victory and picked up the MVP award for the Super Bowl for a second time. Marino would never win football’s biggest prize.

The 1986 season rocked Montana and led to him showing his determination in ways that had yet to be tested. In week one of the season, he suffered a spinal disc injury that required immediate surgery. So severe was the blow that doctors recommend that he retired with immediate effect, but the ‘Comeback Kid’ did not see it the same way. He returned only two months later, to take the 49ers to another postseason appearance.

The back injury worried Coach Walsh. Walsh was infamous for his lack of loyalty when he deemed a player surplus to requirements. He would rather cut a player a year early than a year late so that minimal harm was done to his team. Despite the success he had achieved with Montana, his ruthless streak shone through. Walsh traded for Tampa Bay QB Steve Young to provide not only cover, but competition and a successor to Montana.

The two had respect for one another but were never friends. Montana understood the business of football, but also believed he had much more to offer. Young wanted the chance to run a team that boasted players like Jerry Rice, who would help to elevate his own play. Their playing styles were so different. Where Montana was ice cool and a pocket passer, with the ability to side-step a pass rush, Young was edgy and gung-ho, willing to tuck the ball and run when the pass rush got too hot. Both players were effective, but the difference was even more stark in their personalities and backgrounds. After much back and forth, including alternating starts between the two men which almost led to the downfall of the 49ers, Walsh eventually settled on his grizzled veteran to continue leading the team.

“People always think that we fought,” Young said, years later. “We never had a cross word, never had an argument, and I’ve always said to people that it went as well as it possibly could with two hypercompetitive people.”

It was not until following the 1989 season that Montana and the 49ers were able to make it back to the Super Bowl. Having fought off Young, fought his way back from the back injury and led his team to Super Bowl XXIII, Montana found himself in the situation of needing a 92 yard drive with mere minutes left. His offensive huddle was tense and edgy. Joe Cool came to play.

His entire career had built to this moment: the tough Pennsylvania upbringing, the comebacks at Notre Dame, the fight to remain starter as Young looked over his shoulder. The immortal line he uttered was not awe-inspiring nor strategically important. He simply looked over the heads of his linemen and pointed to the stands: “Hey, isn’t that John Candy?” His team were baffled. What was he doing celebrity spotting? They had a game to win. Montana cracked a smile and his team saw what he was doing. This was just another game, just another drive. This was just another time that Joe Cool would lead them to victory. He shocked the Bengals for the second time in a Super Bowl, securing a 20–16 victory. Despite the drive, it was the only time in Montana’s four Super Bowl victories that he was not named MVP.

Bill Walsh shocked the NFL when he stepped down following that Super Bowl win, but the 49ers dynasty continued, with Montana leading them to another title the following year in Super Bowl XXIV. It would be his fourth and final title, still a record for a quarterback, with an unblemished 4–0 in the biggest game of all.

Prior to that final Super Bowl victory, Montana suffered an elbow injury that turned out to be more substantial than anyone had originally feared. He eventually had surgery that kept him out for the entire 1991 season, and all but the final half of the final game of the 1992 season. Despite almost two years out of the game, Montana was still effective. In his stead, however, many felt the torch had passed to Young, who when finally given his chance, had overseen a seamless transition to his style of play and players saw him as their leader. A fractious atmosphere was coming over the 49ers as the older players stood by Montana and the younger players hung their hats on Young. Montana did what he thought was best for the franchise: he asked for a trade. The Kansas City Chiefs came calling.

Montana led the Chiefs to the postseason in each of his two seasons with the team, but never quite reached his previous heights. One highlight was beating the 49ers, led by Young, on Monday Night Football in the 1994 season. Knowing he wanted to go out before his body and mind failed him, Montana retired after that season.

He finished his career with 40,551 passing yards, 273 touchdowns and a 92.3 passer rating. They do not rank at the top in any category, but Montana was not to be measured by mere statistics. His perfect 4–0 Super Bowl record, 31 career comeback wins, and sheer presence stood him highest in the pantheon of NFL greats.

He was a first-ballot Hall of Fame enshrinee. His 11 touchdowns in the Super Bowl and 127.8 passer rating with no interceptions showed how great he was when the pressure was on. Not for nothing was he called Joe Cool. Almost every team now plays a variation of the West Coast offense that Montana perfected under the tutelage of Walsh, shaping the passing game as we now know it. Montana made every second count in each of his great comebacks. Without him, finesse would still play second fiddle to raw power in the NFL. He took what great quarterbacks before him had done, and raised the bar higher still, to a level players of today still aim to obtain.

As Kipling’s great poem ended, it could once again be an epitaph to Montana’s career:

“If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it”