“Joe Cool” is not cool for setting the bar this high for the rest of us.
Joe Montana is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks to have ever played in the NFL. In his 16 seasons in the league, he boasted a record of 125 wins and 65 losses, was an 8-time Pro-Bowler, won an impressive four Super Bowls (that was a lot before Tom Brady came along), and was a first ballot hall of famer.
During his playing days, he was known as somewhat of a gunslinger. His playing style allowed him to amass 40,000 career passing yards, and also led to one of the most iconic plays in NFL history (“The Catch”), but we’ll get to that later.
Another thing he was known for was using the team’s sideline phone seemingly more than any other player in the history of the NFL. There were even a number of Joe Montana trading cards that brought attention to the chattiness that the “Comeback Kid” was known for:
Those corded sideline phones are usually used by players and coaches down on the field to communicate with coaches and coordinators up in the press box. That’s what Montana was often utilizing it for, though he did find another way to use the phones and pass the time on the sidelines.
Montana revealed that he was curious if the phones worked for communication outside the stadium during an interview with NFL Films:
“I don’t know what made me do it, but one day, I’d hung up and I’m sitting there going ‘Hmm, I wonder if these things call out.
So I pick up the phone and I hit – what do you do normally, you hit 9 right? Give you an outside line. I hit 9, got a dial tone, (so) I dial my house.”
Once he put the number in for his home, Joe explained that his wife would usually pick up, and that he would tell her that he loved her and missed her while he was in the middle of his NFL games. Translation: the rest of us really have no excuse for not communicating with our significant others.
You can hear Montana and his wife Jennifer talk more about the story (and how he tried every phone in every NFL stadium) below:
Man, Joe Montana was quite the catch for being that thoughtful during his games.
And speaking of “The Catch” (how about that transition?), let’s all take a moment to relive one of the NFL’s most famous plays of all time. The fade away pass from Montana into the back of the end zone for a touchdown won the San Francisco 49ers an NFC championship in 1982, and punched their ticket to the Super Bowl XVI, which they ended up winning.
