On Jan. 22, 1989, with 3:20 left in the Super Bowl XXIII game, Cincinnati took the lead against the 49ers (16-13). Struggling to find his rhythm until late into the third quarter, San Francisco’s QB Joe Montana finally arrived, drove a decisive 11-play, 92-yard march before the team huddled to celebrate as the game hung in balance. In that same instant, Montana would point out actor John Candy on the sidelines to offensive tackle Harris Burton. Little did anyone know, a six-year-old Aaron Rodgers was out there with eyes firmly set on the ball.
With 39 seconds left on the clock, this happened: Cincinnati was sure Montana would toss the ball to Jerry Rice, and understandably so. Seeing as the WR drew defenders, John Taylor broke free for Montana to connect and toss for the winning touchdown, or ‘The Drive’ as they call it. That was the singular moment the skinny kid from Northern California made a promise to himself: He would recreate that magic someday.
Growing up as a 49ers fanatic, Rodgers would put on a worn-out Joe Montana t-shirt under his pads during his college games with the Golden Bears, something he would continue doing after spending years in the NFL. It was a uniform he sported proudly. It reminded him of home and where it all started, reminded him of the times his father and two brothers would spend hours creating game-winning two-minute drills in the yard. Rodgers is now 41. And after having carved out a Hall of Fame-worthy career for himself, when asked, “What drove you to be who you are?” he had plenty to say in the new podcast episode on ‘Mike’.
“I wanted to be the best. I wanted to play football when I was six years old. I watched Joe Montana lead the Niners down on the drive. Joe Niner in the Super Bowl. That’s what I want to do. But I didn’t just want to be good. I want to be the best. […] And all my favorite players were the best. Joe Montana, one of the greatest of all time, was my favorite player.“
Far from the fact that his favorite players were never deemed “role players” but rather how they had impacted the game, be it Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Montana, etc., he looks back at his career in the same equation. “So I played forward in soccer, pitched in baseball, played point guard in basketball, and played quarterback, because I wanted to be a part of the action. It’s a great power, a great responsibility,” Rodgers said in the past.
Joe Montana would unbury himself eight times to survive ‘House of Horrors’
When you think of Joe Montana, far from the four Super Bowl titles and three Super Bowl MVPs, it’s a legacy cemented in comebacks. And that one brutal afternoon in Philadelphia in 1989 is arguably the grittiest comeback of his storied career. On September 24, 1989, the 49ers entered a Week 3 clash against the Eagles at the infamous Veterans Memorial Stadium. It later came to be popularly known as the House of Horrors. Rightly so, as the Bears’ WR Wendell Davis tore both patellar tendons in 1992, and the Cowboys’ Michael Irvin suffered a career-ending neck injury on that very field in 1999.
However, Aaron Rodgers’ favorite was built differently. In the 1989 game, Montana was sacked eight times! Former 49ers tight end Brent Jones recalled last week, “I would run a 10-yard route and turn around, I’d be open and there’d just be a huge pile up. I’d look and go, ‘Where the heck is he?’ Unburying himself from five defensive players.” The Eagles battered Montana throughout the game, and with a 21-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter, they thought they had broken him. But the QB punched his way back.
In the fourth quarter, the signal-caller threw to John Taylor along the sideline. The latter ran 70 yards and made the score 21-17. The Eagles replied with a 3-yard touchdown pass, but the 49ers were nowhere close to being done. San Francisco answered with an 8-yard touchdown and closed the gap to 28-24. Their final trick sealed the deal after 49ers defensive back Johnnie Jackson recovered a fumble and brought his team to a 38-28 comeback!
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