HOF Mail Bag - Joe Montana

Joe Montana" src="/cms/images/spacer.gif" width="168" align="left" border="1" />Joe, You are considered by many to be the greatest quarterback of all time. How do you feel about this and who do you consider to be the greatest quarterback ever? - L. Bell

I don't know if you can say or you could do that with anybody. It's too difficult, you have guys that played many, many years ago that I joke and I say when the ball was a different shape. So it's hard to compare guys. So I don't know, it's just nice to be mentioned in the same group as a lot of those guys.

Joe, of all the 49er teams that you played on, which did you consider to be the best? - Fran Haefner, Lancaster PA

Probably the '84 team, I think it was probably the most sound. It might not have been the most talented but I think it was probably the best overall team.

Joe Montana" src="/cms/images/spacer.gif" width="150" align="right" border="1" />You were recruited by Notre Dame, you had a brilliant NFL career, and you went on to be a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. How was it that every team passed on you twice and some teams three times when you were drafted, and did that help get your career started by giving you something extra to prove to everyone? - Scott Bressler

It wouldn't have been so bad sitting there thinking you were looked over but a lot of teams tell, unfortunately tell people, not only myself, but other athletes, that they are going to be drafted in certain rounds. And, I was told I was going to be taken in the first. So I think that made it hard.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have concerned myself with it. It was not a motivating factor.

Mr. Montana, You have given football fans great thrills over the years, from Super Bowl wins to come-from-behind victories. My question is, out of all those games, is there one moment during any of those wins where you sat back and thought "Did we just pull that off?" Because all of us sure did most of the time. - Thank you. - Rick Evans

Not really, but there is one that sticks out more than any and that would be the Super Bowl win over Cincinnati in '90 where I threw the touchdown pass to win the Super Bowl. I did that about a thousand or two times growing up as a kid.

Joe Montana" src="/cms/images/spacer.gif" width="150" align="left" border="1" />Joe, I live about ten minutes from your hometown of New Eagle, Pennsylvania. The people around here still love you. What does this area mean to you today and do you still have family around? You're the greatest and always will be, remember the Mon Valley loves you. - Von Braddock

I do still have family there. I think of it all the time and it means the world. I think it was the reason that I got to where I was.  It was part of the background and growing up in that area.

Joe, What do you think about the comparisons being made between you and Tom Brady? - Shawn Lewis

You know, as I said in an earlier questions, it's hard to compare people. I do think that we have similar type personalities and that's why they compare us more than anything. He's obviously off to a lot better start at a younger age than I was so he may blow by everybody.