Joe Montana: Part VII: The Conclusion

In the record books Joe Montana was probably not one of Notre Dame’s most prolific passers, but he sure knew how to win a game in dramatic fashion. After his college career was over with the Fighting Irish, he was taken in the third round of the NFL Draft, number 82 overall. Prior to the draft, Montana was given very little respect. One scout wrote of him, “He can thread the needle, but usually goes with his primary receiver and forces the ball to him even when he’s in a crowd. He’s a gutty, gambling, cocky type. Doesn’t have great tools, but could eventually start.”
After his NFL career was over, many would consider him the best quarterback in football history. Whenever any respectable publication puts out a list of the greatest players and/or greatest quarterbacks, Joe Montana is always in the top five. In 2004 The Sporting News rated him as the #2 QB of all-time.

If StubHub.com had been invented back in the late 1970s, and you had gotten Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets to a game with Joe Montana playing, you might have thought he was just lucky. However, a few decades later in hindsight we can see that Joe Montana exhibited at Notre Dame all the makings of a football legend.

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