New on Sports Illustrated: Joe Montana’s Super Bowl Q&A
The 49ers and Chiefs legend on his former teams and their young star quarterbacks, and why you won’t be seeing him at a championship parade no matter which team wins.
The day after the conference championship games, Joe Montana posted on social media a photo of two framed jerseys in his house: On the left, a white No. 19 uniform from the last game he played in the NFL, with the Chiefs in 1994. On the right, a red No. 16 uniform from his final game for the 49ers, in 1992. “I GUARANTEE my team will win the SUPER Bowl!!” he wrote. Not quite as bold as
Joe Namath’s guarantee…“I had a great time in both places,” says Montana, who won four Super Bowls over 14 seasons with the Niners, then played two years in Kansas City, making the playoffs both seasons. “I obviously spent more time in San Francisco, but when I got to Kansas City, it was so nice. Those can be tough transitions, but the neighbors, people, organization made it a great experience. It’s what you were hoping for, but not expecting.”
Montana is pleasantly accessible for a three-time Super Bowl MVP. I missed his first call while I was at Arrowhead Stadium during the Super Bowl bye week. He called back a few hours later as I was waiting at gate B59 at the Kansas City Airport, and was exceedingly patient while I asked questions in-between the boarding calls for my flight. As I scanned my boarding pass, I noted that before Patrick Mahomes came along, the last QB to win a home playoff game for the Chiefs had been Montana, 25 years ago. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Montana deadpanned, feigning that he was unaware of the drought.
This Sunday, Montana will get to watch both of his franchises make their much-anticipated returns to the Super Bowl—but as you'll see in this excerpt of our conversation, don’t expected him to see him on a parade float anytime soon.
THE MMQB: What allowed the 49ers to make this turnaround in three seasons?
MONTANA: It takes about that long. Look, when Bill [Walsh] turned the Niners around, when he got there, it was three years. You need like minds and people who want the same thing, and Kyle [Shanahan] and John Lynch put trust in each other in how to go about and build this. The biggest similarity [to Walsh’s rebuild] was defense. Bill grabbed a few offensive players but in ’81, he went to pursue defense. He added a whole secondary, three draft choices [Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williams], and paired them with Dwight Hicks. Youth is great, they are gonna play hard as hard as they’ve played ever in their career, but you also have to have those veterans like Hicks who can handle and understand the young players. We built a great defense, and from that point on, those are the guys who kept us in the games and into Super Bowls.
THE MMQB: Do you remember Kyle Shanahan working as a ballboy for the 49ers as a kid?
MONTANA: I am sure I ran into him a million times in my last year there when Mike [Shanahan] was there. That was a strange year for me, so it was hard to concentrate on a lot of things going on, knowing I wasn’t gonna be there anymore. I did what I had to do to keep myself sane. Normally, I would have probably played around with him a bunch. You always knew when coaches’ kids were around; you always make it fun for them and play with them. I’m a big practical joker, and I’m sure if I didn’t trip him a few times I should have, and taken balls from him.
THE MMQB: Jimmy Garoppolo faced a lot of pressure early on. His picture was next to yours on the team’s “Faithful Then, Faithful Now” banners. How did you see him handle that?
MONTANA: I haven’t met him; I don’t go down there very often. I might get to one or two games a year. I started a venture fund that eats up most of my time, and going down and back [to Santa Clara] is an hour without traffic. I love watching him, love what he’s doing down there, but I don’t look backward very often. I absolutely love the game; I love the Chiefs, 49ers, and I grew up a Steelers fan all my life. I love watching, but I don’t feel like I need to be involved in the game anymore.
THE MMQB: The 49ers have nodded to the past, but as they have rebuilt this team, have you also seen their commitment to doing things differently and charting their own path?
MONTANA: I think sometimes if you overemphasize the past, you forget about what is going on right now. Everyone thinks about the past players, but we had our time in the limelight. People have asked me: “Will you go to the parade?” Why would I go ride in the parade? I’ve been there; why celebrate me? They don’t need us old guys there interfering. It’s nice to have guys around in certain areas, to help younger guys understand what it takes what it to win, but this has nothing to do with me. I am not one to go get involved. If I was going to get involved, I’d want to be a coach, someone in the organization. I’ve been there, done that. While I still remember those days, this is about these guys, not us old guys.
THE MMQB: What is memorable to you about the way Patrick Mahomes plays?
MONTANA: He does a lot of great things, but I can also tell you, the things he does are only possible because he has other guys around him on the offensive side who understand and move along with the things he does. You are never out of the play when he’s involved. You watch some teams and some receivers will just run down the field and they don’t even react. But there is a big understanding from his guys that this guy can make plays no matter where, no matter how desperate it feels. If you don’t have that trust, nothing else matters.
THE MMQB: Do you think the Chiefs needed a player like Mahomes to change their postseason fortunes?
MONTANA: It’s easy to say yes, but I don’t think it took that type of a person to make them get over the hump. The organization is very stable and strong, and they were going to rebuild it. But obviously having someone like him come along makes it a lot easier, for sure.
THE MMQB: With both of these teams, it’s easy to start thinking about how they could be contenders for years to come. How hard is it for a team to stay at the top?
MONTANA: You see this a lot, where a team will have a run, and then it will change as those guys get older. It's hard to keep those things going. Today, with how much players are getting paid, and the salary cap obviously puts a damper on some guys' ability to stay in one place, and they want to go and make money before something happens because your career could end tomorrow. I’m all for these guys going and moving around, making the money you can, as much as you can while you can, and then hopefully you get out of there healthy... because it’s no fun going through a lot of these surgeries and things like that. It makes your life miserable. Just watching the linebacker, [Luke] Kuechly, getting out. You know what? If he is healthy, and he thinks he’s had enough, and he’s got enough money, go. Get out of there before you can’t do it. And I’ll be the first to say that part of the reason I retired was because of injury. Because I looked at my family going, Damn, I missed most of this growing up, and something could happen to me at this point in my career that might make it impossible for me to play with my kids or play with my grandkids. As you get older, you realize that sometimes there are things that end up being more important. So enjoy the game, have fun, and then I tell them: Make your money and get out while you can, healthy if you can.
• Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com.
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