Joe Montano is widely considered the best quarterback in the history of the National Football League in the United States. The essence of Montaños’ game can be summed up in one of sportswriters’ favorite sayings: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, Montano did get going, when things got tough for his team. Joe Montano’s career stats are as amazing as any quarterback in NFL history, if not better. But even such powerful statistics seem unable to outline the real impact of the player.
Joe Montano was born on June 11, 1956 in Pennsylvania. After showing off his football skills during his college life at the University of North Carolina, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1979. He got off to a fairly moderate start in the league. But soon his ice-cold performance in tight games came to the fore. He won a lot of games in the fourth quarter almost by magic. After an excellent career with the San Francisco 49ers, for whom he played until 1992, he was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993. Even in the twilight of his career, he managed to play excellent games for his new team. .
The most impressive and perhaps the first of many illustrious comebacks in Joe Montano’s career statistics occurred in 1981 in Super Bowl XXIII between the Dallas and San Francisco 49ers, when he threw a series of impressive fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Everyone who saw that brilliant performance instantly became a fan of the new soccer superstar. But it was only a beginning. He was aptly dubbed the Comeback Kid and Joe Cool, due to his ability to improve his performance during critical stages of the game.
Joe Montano’s career stats regarding comebacks are quite remarkable. He played the leading role in as many as 31 comeback wins. In all these games Montano saved the best for the last quarter of the game. It is not a thing related to a particular team. Naturally, most of these comebacks (26 of 31) occurred while he was playing for the San Francisco 49ers. But he did manage to engineer five comeback wins, even in his comparatively short career with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The following are some of the bright pieces of Joe Montano’s career stats. During his career as quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, he completed 2,929 of 4,600 passes with 244 touchdowns and 123 interceptions. He threw 35 times over 300 yards, including seven times the distance exceeded 400 yards. When he retired in 1995, he had a career passer rating of 92.3, the highest in history. He has also won the NFL Most Valuable Player award several times.
