Long form article on Joe Montana

Montana and Brady had one thing in common.  If they were within striking distance of a winning score in the 4th quarter, both had an incredible ability to focus and play their best in those moments.

Montana possibly could have won a couple more titles if he stayed healthy but he just never was quite the same from 1990 until the end of his career.  And make no mistake, even beaten to a pulp and still past his prime he still was a fantastic player.  His body just couldn’t take as much punishment after that final Super Bowl win in early ‘90.

@fightphoe93 posted:

Montana and Brady had one thing in common.  If they were within striking distance of a winning score in the 4th quarter, both had an incredible ability to focus and play their best in those moments.

Montana possibly could have won a couple more titlesif he stayed healthy but he just never was quite the same from 1990 until the end of his career.  And make no mistake, even beaten to a pulp and still past his prime he still was a fantastic player.  His body just couldn’t take as much punishment after that final Super Bowl win in early ‘90.

I would imagine one of the reasons Montana "couldn't stay healthy" was because when he played, defenders didn't draw roughing calls for sacking the QB. Or for hitting the QB multiple times per game. 

Over the course of TB's career (and every other QB in that timeframe), pressuring/hitting the QB has become more and more archaic/impossible. 

Sensational article.

Go watch the YouTube of Leonard Marshall knocking Montana out of the 1991 NFC Championship game, basically ending Joe’s 49er career. Hardest hit I can remember a QB taking except for Nick Perry’s shot on Andrew Luck. In both instances my first thought was that those guys had been killed.

Looks clean to me even now.  He's outside the pocket and still in the throwing motion. No head to head.

Great article and thanks for posting.  After reading that I am reminded just how great Montana was and he did it in an era where defenders weren't flagged as frequently for roughing. 

To me Brady and Montana are the best QBs of all time they just have that cool factor that seemed to really come out in the 4th quarter with everything on the line.  Just imagine if he had stayed healthy how much more he would have won and I think his stats would have been even better.

What's crazy to me is that even with all the injuries he still threw for 40,000 yards and 273 TDs in an era where defenses could pretty much tee off on a QB without getting flagged like they do now.

They not only could knock the stuffing out of the QB, but you see receivers getting grabbed at a lot more and there really wasn't much protection for them either.

You think about how cocky the present day diva WR is and it's not hard to understand why there weren't many of them back in that era.

Poor ol' Joe.
No doubt he was THE man of his era.

But I can totally empathize; getting depressed while vacationing in Hawaii for a month can take a toll on anybody. That's gotta be tough...

Thanks for posting that. Amazing read.

From the article: Bill Walsh traded for Young in 1987 because he worried Montana's back injury might end his career. Joe actually thought about retiring then but the competition with Young filled him with determination.

No doubt the drafting of Love led to two Rodgers' MVP seasons.

I know we discussed this before as to whether Montana could have been a Packer or not.  But could imagine Starr, then Montana, then Favre and Rodgers as Packer QBs?  A hell of a lot more than 4 Super Bowl victories.

Don’t forget JL

Jared Lorenzen?  God rest his fat, fat soul.

I think “fat” is a pejorative term these days.

”Undocumented weight” is more appropriate.

@Blair Kiel posted:

I think “fat” is a pejorative term these days.

”Undocumented weight” is more appropriate.

My weight is "well documented" by every mirror I run across!

@ammo posted:

I know we discussed this before as to whether Montana could have been a Packer or not.  But could imagine Starr, then Montana, then Favre and Rodgers as Packer QBs?  A hell of a lot more than 4 Super Bowl victories.

Having Montana would likely mean not getting Favre.  Too many things would have been changed by Montana.  But the question within that question is how successful would Montana have been in GB?

With Bart as his mentor for the 1st few years he should have done pretty good.  And if he did good enough Bart may never have been fired.

Sure he would have been good but would he have become what he did with Walsh? Would he even have been to the SB with Bart? Dickey was no Joe but those teams were more than a QB away.

@DH13 posted:

Having Montana would likely mean not getting Favre.  Too many things would have been changed by Montana.  But the question within that question is how successful would Montana have been in GB?

That is a great question.  It's fun to talk about but I honestly believe that any legendary QB could have changed the direction of the Packers franchise back then.  Sure they had some decent players but the franchise was a mess and I don't think they would have taken the next step.  Maybe he could have had a good season here and there but the Packers had terrible defenses back then and IMHO that would have kept them from winning Super Bowls. 

But, as DH13 said if he had been successful more than likely they would not have gotten Favre and perhaps even we would have not gotten Harlen to run the team.