Joe Montana

Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana won four Super Bowl rings during an NFL career that began in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers and ended in 1994 with the Kansas City Chiefs. He is one of nine quarterbacks in league history to throw for more than 40,000 yards (40,551), and his 92.26 passer's rating ranks fifth on the all-time list.

Q: People see you as a quiet, no-nonsense kind of guy during interviews. But you say you like to laugh. Which entertainers make you laugh whenever you've seen them perform?

Montana: There's a lot of people. Robin Williams has always been one of those guys. Chris Rock is on that plateau. There was a guy named Gallagher that used to do crazy, stupid stuff that I laughed at. But typically, in interviews, you get so guarded, you're always in check. Outside of that, hardly anything I say ever is serious.

Q: So when you played, you were one of those locker-room pranksters?

Montana: Oh yeah. I was the guy who would steal your bike, put your bike in a tree. One time in training camp, we got all the bikes and lined them up next to a motorcycle. We had a big, thick chain we had bought and put it through all the tires and back through the motorcycle tire, and then locked it. So when everybody came out from their meeting at night, no one could get on their bikes and the guy couldn't ride his motorcycle.

Q: Was it easy to trace back to you?

Montana: Oh yeah. But I'd already be in my room, locked in for the night. I wouldn't open the door.

Q: They did the remake of the movie The Longest Yard. You ever been in a movie -- even in a cameo role?

Montana looks for an open receiver. He threw 273 touchdowns during his NFL career. (John Gapps III/Associated Press)

Montana: I've been approached a couple of times with little things. I don't know, I just haven't had the . . . that's a long time for a little bit of work. Unless it's your focus . . . I enjoy watching the movies. I wouldn't enjoy going down some place to spend a week for 30 seconds on the screen.

Q: Have you ever watched a former athlete in a movie and thought, I could've done that part?

Montana: I just saw the movie with Danny (Marino) the other day . . . Bad Boys with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Danny gets out of a car . . . yeah, I mean, I've been asked to do a lot of stuff -- even on sitcoms. Sitcoms would be fun because I prefer to laugh and joke anyway. I just haven't had the desire to get into that business yet.

Q: Ever have someone come up to you saying they know who you are, and then they call you by someone else's name?

Montana: Oh yeah. The other night I got two Joe Namaths. One guy even brought a picture of Joe Namath for me to sign. When we took a picture, he called me Joe Namath, but I didn't want to correct him. Then I go in to sign some things, and one of them was the picture of the guy with Namath. I didn't sign it. I should have. I didn't want to ruin the photo for him. But I get called Namath or Joe Theismann all the time. I don't talk enough to be Theismann.

Q: If you could change a rule in pro football, which would it be?

Montana: I'd change it so that you couldn't hit the quarterback -- then I could go back and play, right? But I think the rule they have, the two-step rule, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The guys don't mind getting hit. It's when you get those guys that have you by 150 pounds or so, they hit you and then they drive you, pick you up and compress you into the ground. That's where they need to protect the guys. That's the hard hit to come up from, and it's the only position that has that happen. Guys can take the hard hits coming on. They don't care about that part. The thing you're worried about is when you know have to stand in and throw the ball, you get hit and you can feel the momentum coming as you're getting driven.

Q: Defensive linemen "compress" you. Haven't heard that term used often.

Montana: That's what they do. If you go down, they try to release themselves down as you make contact with the ground -- and you're in between them and the ground. They try to do that little 'ahrumm' on top of you. The only thing a quarterback has is, you hope you get (a hit) that comes on straight, so that when they go to compress you, you kind of raise your knee a little bit and hopefully catch one of them in the right spot.

Q: It sounds funny hearing the word "compressed" used in the description, but it probably wasn't too funny when it happened.

Montana: No. A guy can come full speed and hit you. Just like when I got hit by Leonard Marshall -- I didn't get hurt until he compressed me into the ground. Other than that, I could've shaken off the hit. As he compressed me, he broke my hand. And my whole chest hurt so bad that I had no idea my hand was broken for a good 15-20 minutes. I couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to die.

Q: Your oldest son is playing quarterback in high school. How much pressure does he have on him, being the son of Hall of Famer Joe Montana?

Montana: He only started a couple of years ago, so I'm trying to help him along as fast as I can. He's never seen a seven-on-seven drill -- which is great for him right now. I've been trying to get him to where he feels a lot more comfortable. The pressure will come, and the worst pressure will come from the players. That's what I'm trying to avoid. The stuff that happens on the outside, he won't hear or see for a long time. But he will feel it from his teammates, when that group gets on you. That's hard for anyone to take.

Q: Let's say (Denver Broncos coach) Mike Shanahan walks into a bar. You're already seated at the bar, not expecting to see him. Are you two going to have a drink together?

Montana: Oh yeah. I really didn't play for Mike (at San Francisco). He had just gotten there (in 1992), and my last years would have been with him. But he had nothing to do with the decision (to leave). I know how that decision was made, how it was made and why it was made. Mike wanted the competition. I wanted to compete and wasn't going to be afforded that opportunity to compete. I said I'm not going to sit behind someone who I know I'm better than. That's why I decided it was time to (leave San Francisco).