All you need to know about Joe Montana is this: four Super Bowl appearances, four Super Bowl championships, and not a single turnover. No interceptions. No lost fumbles. When football reached its biggest stage, Joe Cool simply did not give the other team the football.
Before Tom Brady came along and rewrote what we thought was possible at the quarterback position, Montana was the standard. For years, when the GOAT conversation came up, Joe Montana was the name sitting at the top—and there was a very good reason for it.
From Notre Dame to an Overlooked Draft Pick
Montana’s ability to deliver under pressure didn’t suddenly appear when he reached the NFL. At Notre Dame, he became known for leading comebacks, with perhaps none more famous than the 1979 Cotton Bowl against Houston. Playing through illness in freezing conditions, Montana helped Notre Dame overcome a 34-12 fourth-quarter deficit to win 35-34.
Despite those moments, NFL teams weren’t exactly lining up to make him the face of their franchise. The San Francisco 49ers selected Montana 82nd overall in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft.
Another all-time great who somehow had dozens of players selected before him.
San Francisco paired Montana with head coach Bill Walsh, and it became one of the greatest combinations football has ever seen. Montana’s accuracy, intelligence and anticipation made him perfect for Walsh’s offense, but what truly separated him was something you couldn’t draw up on a play sheet: the bigger the moment became, the calmer Joe Montana seemed to get.
That’s how Joe Cool was born.
Four Super Bowls. Four Rings. Zero Turnovers.
Montana reached four Super Bowls with San Francisco and won every single one of them: Super Bowls XVI, XIX, XXIII and XXIV. He won Super Bowl MVP three times and finished his Super Bowl career with 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He also never lost a fumble in those four games.
Think about that for a second.
Four Super Bowls. Four wins. Eleven passing touchdowns. Zero interceptions. Zero lost fumbles.
When the championship was on the line, Montana never committed a turnover.
And his final Super Bowl appearance might have been his most dominant. Against Denver in Super Bowl XXIV, Montana completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns as the 49ers destroyed the Broncos 55-10.
Five touchdowns. Zero interceptions. Another ring. Another Super Bowl MVP.
Just another day at work for Joe Cool.
The Drive
If there is one possession that perfectly represents Joe Montana, though, it’s the final drive of Super Bowl XXIII.
The 49ers trailed Cincinnati 16-13 and received the ball at their own eight-yard line with just over three minutes remaining. Ninety-two yards separated Montana from another championship.
This is where legends are made.
With the entire season on the line, Montana calmly drove San Francisco down the field before finding John Taylor for the game-winning touchdown with 34 seconds remaining.
No panic. No forcing the football. No mistake.
Just Joe Montana doing exactly what Joe Montana did.
Then They Gave Him Jerry Rice
As if Montana wasn’t already difficult enough to stop, San Francisco eventually paired him with Jerry Rice, the greatest wide receiver in NFL history in my opinion.
That’s just unfair.
Montana had already won two championships before Rice arrived, but together they helped take the 49ers dynasty to another level. Montana’s precision combined with Rice’s route running, hands and ability after the catch created one of the greatest quarterback-receiver combinations the sport has ever seen.
And the results speak for themselves.
Don’t Forget the Regular Season
Montana’s postseason greatness sometimes overshadows just how good he was from September through December.
He won consecutive NFL MVP awards in 1989 and 1990, was selected to eight Pro Bowls and earned three First-Team All-Pro selections. His 1989 season was especially ridiculous: Montana completed 70.2% of his passes, threw 26 touchdowns against only eight interceptions and recorded a then-record 112.4 passer rating.
He finished his career with 40,551 passing yards and 273 passing touchdowns and was selected to the NFL’s 1980s All-Decade Team before eventually becoming a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer.
And when his legendary San Francisco career ended, Montana wasn’t quite finished. He went to Kansas City and helped take the Chiefs all the way to the AFC Championship Game during his first season with the franchise.
Different uniform. Same Joe Cool.
The GOAT Before Brady
For a long time, Joe Montana was my standard for quarterback greatness.
And in my eyes, it took more than Tom Brady simply matching Montana’s four championships to surpass him. Brady eventually had to win ring number five, completing the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history against the Atlanta Falcons after trailing 28-3, before I was finally willing to move Montana out of the #1 spot.
That tells you everything about how highly I regard Joe Cool.
He wasn’t a first-round phenom who entered the NFL expected to become a superstar. He was the 82nd pick out of Notre Dame who became the quarterback of a dynasty and one of the greatest clutch performers football has ever seen.
Four Super Bowls. Four victories. Three Super Bowl MVPs. Eleven passing touchdowns. Zero turnovers.
There have been more physically gifted quarterbacks. There have been quarterbacks who produced bigger statistical seasons.
But when everything was on the line, nobody was cooler than Joe Montana.
That’s why Joe Cool is #2 on my list of the five greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
Only one remains.
And if you’ve been following Ethical Sports Takes, you already know exactly who it is.
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