Playing in a quarterback era of strong arms and long touchdowns,
Joe Montana never felt a need to pitch every pass far downfield.
Instead, he chewed up defenses in small gulps and when he was done,
he had passed for over 40,000 yards and first-ballot induction into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Montana, who directed the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl
championships and won the game's MVP award three times, will be
honored Saturday with longtime teammate Ronnie Lott, defensive
lineman Howie Long, linebacker Dave Wilcox and Pittsburgh owner Dan
Rooney.
A third-round draft choice out of Notre Dame in 1979, Montana
crafted a brilliant career. He was the fourth quarterback to go in
that draft behind Jack Thompson, Phil Simms and Steve Fuller, each
picked in the first round, each equipped with long-pass
capabilities.
"Some guys don't want to throw the ball five yards," Montana
said. "I'm not a guy to throw 30 yards downfield all the time.
"At Notre Dame, we threw maybe 20 passes a game. Jack Thompson
was throwing 50. How do you compete with that? I played within the
system. I helped make the system run."
He tries to keep the role of the quarterback in perspective.
"We get too much blame and too much credit, by far," he said.
"What the quarterback is doing is so much more visible. He's got
that thing in his hands every time. Most of the negative things
that happen, happen to him."
Blaming the quarterback, Montana said, is the easy way out, sort
of like blaming the mailman when a letter is lost. "I was the
mailman," he said, "not the U.S. Mail Department.
"For me to throw four touchdown passes, I've got to have
protection. I just had to get it to the right person at the right
time. Once I throw the ball, somebody's got to catch it. Now,
somebody else has to stop the other team. Ask Dan Marino what it's
like to score 30 points and lose. Football is the ultimate team
sport."
Montana lived for the games.
"Nothing comes close to a Sunday afternoon, the ups and
downs," he said. "This is a game that gets to you in a special
way. I've tried some other things. I like golf. I've done some
things with horses. The race is over after 2½ minutes. Then you
talk about it for three hours."
Instead, he played for three hours.
Montana was at his best in big games. He never threw an
interception in 122 Super Bowl passes and had six 300-yard
postseason passing games. His 3,409 completions ranked third
all-time and his career passer rating of 92.3 still ranks second
all-time.
"Football wasn't easy," he said. "It was fun. When you have
fun, a lot of people perceive it as easy. I was fortunate to be on
a great team. I tried to treat every play, every down the same."
All those plays, all those downs have brought him to the Hall of
Fame. He has spent a long time trying to craft his acceptance
speech.
"It's one of the hardest things to try to put together," he
said. "You go one way, then throw it away, go another way, then
throw it away. They give you eight minutes."
That's six minutes more than Montana usually had for those
late-game comebacks that made him one of the game's greatest
quarterbacks. He directed 31 of them in his career, perhaps the
most famous the 92-yard march to the winning touchdown in the final
minute of the 1989 Super Bowl against Cincinnati.
To Montana, that drive was no big deal. He was shooting for the
25-yard line and the tying field goal, then was prepared to take
his chances in overtime. And he had no doubts that he'd get at
least that far.
"You have to remember," he said, "every Thursday we practiced
the two-minute drive against the best defense in the league, a
terrific defense that knew all our audibles."
That's not to say he wasn't aware of the situation and what was
at stake. Still, in the midst of the drive, he took the time to
point out actor John Candy on the sidelines, leaving lineman Harris
Barton a bit flabbergasted about how cool the quarterback was.
"I tried to deal with my nerves," Montana said. "I tried to
be the same person all the time. Nerves are good. I wanted to be
nervous. If you don't care, I hope you're on the other side."
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VIDEO
  NFL Hall of Fame inductee Joe Montana goes Up Close with Gary Miller. RealVideo: 28.8 |
