Montana has a right to be nervous. The Chiefs are counting on the legendary quarterback–at 37, three years removed from his fourth Super Bowl title and third Super Bowl MVP trophy–for nothing less than a trip to football’s Promised Land. “Father Time catches up to everybody”, says Len Dawson, who quarterbacked KC to its lone Super Bowl championship back in 1970, “but Montana definitely still has the touch.”
The Chiefs have made the playoffs as a wild-card team each of the past three seasons, with little success. With the addition of Montana (and versatile running back Marcus Allen, a fellow Super Bowl MVP), Kansas City has pledged to ditch its plodding, big-back offense for the passing game that Montana ran to perfection in San Francisco. While Montana looked sharp in his opening one-quarter stint, he didn’t lead the Chiefs to a score. Still, no one was discouraged by his performance or Kansas City’s loss–except, of course, those negative sportswriters. “We had all kneeled and genuflected and said, ‘We are not worthy’,” said Kansas City Star columnist Gib Twyman, “but Joe didn’t get it done.”
But Joe knows that scores count only once the regular season begins. And his aging arm is still bolstered by the best set of those cliched intangibles in the game. Assuming, that is, that Montana didn’t leave his heart in San Francisco.
