Me, Joe Montana, and Jim McMahon: a crazy true story of a Runaway Groom, a quirky White Knight, and a Hail Mary

Launching a marketing campaign can sometimes, quite unexpectedly, go off the rails. Waaaaay off the rails. But I'm here to prove that no matter how dire the situation, there's always a course correction out there that can salvage your plan.

This was my vivid lesson from a 1985 encounter with 2 NFL QBs, a jilted spouse, and pure dumb luck of the Irish.

JOE

Joe Montana had just won the '85 Super Bowl and I was on the SI marketing team. Back then Sports Illustrated could convince any athlete to appear in a TV spot for the magazine at super low fees. In Joe's case I think it was about 25K. Super bowl winning QB for 25K!

We wrote a script that had Joe and a female trainer getting Joe prepped for the next season to win another Super Bowl. After a quick negotiation with his agent, we made the deal for Joe to appear on set in LA in the Spring of '85.

Me and the SI marketing team flew out a few days prior to scout and ready the set. This was no cheapie shoot - I recall the budget coming in around 150K. We met Joe and his rep the night before at dinner and hit it off.

I introduced myself by saying, "Nice to meet you Joe, seems we both had our hands up the same guy's butt." "Excuse me?" squeaked the future Hall of Famer. I quickly explained, "Mark Gorsac! He was your center at Ringgold High and he was my center at Dickinson College." "Oh, right, how is Mark?" he said with a smile and a sigh of relief. We now had some novel common ground to make the rest of the night more fun.

After a pleasant dinner, Joe headed to his hotel and we to ours. At around 11pm I got a call from Joe's agent who said, quite calmly, that Joe couldn't do the spot tomorrow ... he pulled a muscle in his back moving some outdoor furniture on the deck.

Gulp, what? The crew shows up in 8 hours ... and we have 150K invested in this. I told him we'll rewrite the script to feature Joe in bed nursing an injury. We'll bring the crew and equipment to his home. He'll never have to leave his bed. No, Joe's out, barked the agent. And hung up the phone.

Uncharted territory indeed. Where in the marketing manual does it explain how to source a Super Bowl winning QB in 8 hours? We gathered the team in product manager Jose Perez's room as we spun through solutions. By around 1am we decided the best course of action was find a replacement QB and get the SI jet to bring him from wherever he was on the planet. It was spring so no telling where these guys were. So we chose one of the NFLs most colorful characters - Jim McMahon.

JIM

When west coast time 5am rolled around, we started making calls to find out who repped Jim. We soon found him - he lived in Chicago - and the convo went something like this: "Hi, This is Jack Maley from Sports Illustrated. We're thinking about having Jim appear in a TV spot, would he consider this?" It was early but the agent jumped right in, "Absolutely, Jim loves the magazine. What date you thinking to shoot?" "Ah, today." "Today, today?" "Yea, ah, here's what happened (explained sitch)". "I see ... but you have a problem, Jim's not in New York. (He assumed we were shooting near SI's HQ.) Jim's at a golf tournament ... in LA."

"Jim's ... in ... Los Angeles." I stated slowly. "Where?" "He's staying at the Hilton on Santa Monica Boulevard. Wait, WE'RE on Santa Monica Boulevard. I ran to the window shades, flung them open, pointed to the Hilton sign and announced to our stunned team -"Jim is right there!"

After squeezing us a bit on the deal points Jim's agent arranged to have Jim show up on set by 11am. Seems Jim likes to party and was going to need a late wake up.

At 11 sharp, Jim struts onto the set flashing his trademark sunglasses and big toothy smile. This was truly an insane event: just 10 hours ago we came up the idea to shoot Jim McMahon. Now here was the notorious headband protesting, helicopter mooning, Mardi Gras beer chugging, QB from Mormom country standing there studying his lines. Just crazy. The Irishman's first request was for a 6-pack of Becks. It was 11am.

Despite the alcohol, or perhaps because of it, he gave a terrific performance and we had ourselves a new DRTV spot. Through the years the spot has been lost but I think we were giving away a free football phone. I think Garo Yepremian could have starred in this commercial and the football phone would have guaranteed success.

A few days later we were back in NYC. I called the 49ers training camp telling them I was researching a story about off season injuries and heard Joe hurt his back recently. The trainer said, "No, Joe's fine, I'm watching him run right now."

JENNIFER

I hung up the phone and immediately called Joe's agent. "What's going on, what's the truth here?" In those days SI did handshake deals with athletes so his agent wasn't opening himself to a lawsuit by being honest. "Truth is, Joe just got married to a TV commercial actress he met doing a Schick razor spot. She wanted to be the female trainer in your storyboard. You rejected her when we asked." I vaguely recalled that request but reasoned, "Of course we did, the spot didn't work if it was his wife." "Nonetheless, she told Joe he's not doing this spot. This was Joe's third marriage and he didn't want to risk yet another settlement!"

Wow. I guess bonding over Mark Gorsac's butt gets trumped by Jennifer's. Joe and Jennifer have been married ever since and have great kids and a loving family. Apparently Joe made the right call.

So even though it's 4th and 99 with 3 seconds on the clock, down by 6, and your second string QB is under center, keep the faith. All you need is some creative thinking, a pound of determination, and a pot of Irish luck.

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