Mr. Comeback

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Montana was Joe Cool on the gridiron and relatable off of it. There was something magical about him. I wasn't going to grow up to be a quarterback but, I wanted to be cool under pressure like Joe Montana.

"It was like a Clark Kent stepping into a phone booth" - Eddie DeBartelo, Jr. (San Francisco 49ers owner) talking about the metamorphosis that took place when Montana was on the football field.

Throughout his life, Montana's family, friends, and teammates were struck by the dichotomy in his personality. "Once he walked on the field. you look at him and can tell, that's the guy in charge," said 49ers receiver Dwight Clark. "He was the five-star general who had this aura about him. You wanted to follow the guy into battle." But the same man who commanded a huddle with a quiet but firm presence, able to approach the most desperate situation on a football field with ice water in his veins, repeatedly seizing the moment with confidence and a clear head as millions watched, was rather shy in life. He did not like to be the center of attention. Too much focus on him made him uncomfortable, and he was the sort of man that battled nerves if he had to speak in front of a crowd. In most instances, whether he was fifteen or thirty-five, he happily faded into the wallpaper, which once led 49ers running back Wendell Tyler to remark, "If you didn't know Joe, you wouldn't know he was Joe Montana."