It’s hard to imagine Joe Montana having more success had he played football today rather than 40 years ago. But his career would have turned out differently in one respect.
“My bank account would be a lot better, just put it that way,” he said.
Montana, the 49ers’ four-time Super Bowl winner, two-time MVP, and childhood hero of Tom Brady, was in Boston last week on behalf of Guinness, pouring pints across town ahead of last Saturday’s Notre Dame-Navy game at Gillette Stadium. Now 70, Montana remains in great shape, and he spends most of his free time being active and watching football with his wife, Jennifer, children, and grandchildren.
“Our family’s a ‘do’ kind of family. They’d rather be doing stuff,” Montana said. “But usually we hit Monday or Thursday night with the kids or family, because all our kids are around us in San Francisco.”
He remains a fan of the 49ers and the NFL, and sees only one major difference between the league now and in his era, 1979-94 — the myriad safety rules that protect quarterbacks, particularly the penalty for landing on the QB with full body weight. The latter part of Montana’s career was hampered by back, knee, and elbow injuries.
“I won’t say it’s like seven-on-seven for a quarterback because it’s not quite at that level,” he said. “This guy right here, 3 feet from me, I used to know that he’s going to plant me in the ground. And you can’t do that today. And that’s a big difference in the quarterback’s mind and the ability.
“I always say: The quarterback can take a hit. It’s just he’s the only guy who gets hit most of the time standing still, by a guy who outweighs him by 150 pounds. Just don’t let him compress him in the ground. That’s where guys get hurt.”
In his new book “The Game,” longtime NFL writer Peter King wrote that in 1979, 49ers coach Bill Walsh was hot on a quarterback prospect from Morehead State named Phil Simms. But the 49ers didn’t have a first-round pick, and the Giants snagged Simms with the No. 7 pick, so the 49ers “settled” in the third round for Montana.
Brady’s legendary career was fueled by the sting of not being drafted until No. 199, but Montana said he harbored no such feelings back then.
“I would have been one of those guys that was sitting there on TV where you’re going, ‘Oh, OK. This is a first-round pick. Oh, no, it’s the second-round pick. Oh, no,’ ” Montana said. “But I was happy. I was going to a great city, a great team, with a great opportunity with Bill Walsh coming in, and, you know, Steve DeBerg was there, but really hadn’t established himself enough to think that I didn’t have an opportunity to play at some point in time. But, for the most part, it was a dream just to get to the NFL.
“I wasn’t mad at all. I just was happy, I had a great situation.”
As he wrapped up the conversation, Montana was asked if the John Candy story was true. The story goes that in the closing minutes of Super Bowl XXIII against the Bengals, and the 49ers needing to drive the field for the winning touchdown, Montana was so calm and cool that he pointed out the famous actor in the stands.
“In Super Bowl week, we’d be free for dinner, and Harris [Barton] was like a little kid in the candy store. He couldn’t wait to tell you what celebrity he saw,” Montana said. “And so, you know, TV timeouts in the Super Bowl are forever. So we had been standing there and I think I’d been to the sideline I know at least once, maybe twice. And I had met John Candy a number of years before that, as he was one of the owners of the Argonauts in Toronto. And my contract was coming up, and they were trying to get me to go to Toronto. And so I met with him a couple times.
“And I was, like, standing there in the huddle, he was framed, kind of, and I don’t remember Harris saying that he saw John Candy. So, I just basically walked over and told him, ‘Hey, there’s, John Candy.’ And Harris stands like this, he looked over, and then started mumbling a bunch of stuff to me, like, ‘It’s the Super Bowl, and you’re talking about John Candy.’ I don’t know what he was saying. But he appreciates it more today. I really was doing it for Harris, not so much the team, but I guess they heard it.”
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.
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