Parkersburg High School junior David Parsons, the Big Reds’ quarterback, asks a question of NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana via Zoom conference in the PHS library Thursday afternoon as fellow junior Jackson Mills listens during an interview for teacher Sam Vincent’s “Sports in American Culture” class. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
PARKERSBURG — Speaking to about 60 Parkersburg High School students via Zoom on Thursday, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana talked about winning Super Bowls, players of his era and today and what it takes to be successful.
Montana was a guest of Sam Vincent’s “Sports in American Culture” class, which has welcomed figures from across the sports world for virtual interviews.
Montana won a national championship at Notre Dame, then was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round. It wasn’t until his third season that he became a full-time starter, winning the first of four Super Bowl titles in 1982.
Asked by one student about the atmosphere in the locker room after that championship, Montana admitted he caught some flak from his father for not being very excited at first.
“The game wasn’t to my expectation of how I thought I could have played,” he said.
Former San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Joe Montana speaks with students in Parkersburg High School’s “Sports in American Culture” class Thursday afternoon via Zoom in the school’s library. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
His favorite moment from one of the big games was easy — throwing a touchdown pass to wide receiver John Taylor in the waning moments of Super Bowl XXIII to earn a 20-16 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I did that in the back yard a thousand times with my neighbor,” Montana said.
The next year the Niners won big, so big that Montana was pulled early en route to a 55-10 win over the Denver Broncos.
“The Super Bowl’s the only game you don’t want to come out of,” he said. “We still had a lot of work we could have done.”
Montana talked about work and preparation when a student asked him if he ever experienced stress or panic during a game.
Former San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Joe Montana speaks with students in Parkersburg High School’s “Sports in American Culture” class Thursday afternoon via Zoom in the school’s library. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
The only moment of panic he could recall followed a hit by New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Marshall that resulted in multiple injuries, including cracked ribs and a broken hand, and was his last play for San Francisco. He was later traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, though he said Thursday he hoped at one point to go to the Pittsburgh Steelers, his hometown team as a kid growing up in western Pennsylvania.
As for stress, Montana said he relied on a little bit to keep an edge, but he mostly dealt with it through preparation.
“The more you study and the better you prepare, the less there is,” he said.
For a quarterback, “the game is 75 to 80% mental,” Montana said. “I spent more time off the field studying than I did on the field practicing.”
Montana fielded a few questions from PHS junior David Parsons, the quarterback for the Big Reds’ football team. Among them was what he sees as the biggest difference between when he played and today’s NFL.
NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana answers a question via Zoom link during an interview with students from the Parkersburg High School “Sports in American Culture” class Thursday in the school library. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Montana pointed to the increased speed of larger players like defensive linemen, who he said he used to be able to not worry about if he got by them.
“Now, they’re fast enough to catch you,” he said.
Parsons said it was exciting to talk to Montana, whose career he knew about in part because the Hall of Famer was “my grandma’s favorite player.”
“It was really cool, especially with him being a quarterback,” he said, adding he appreciated Montana’s advice to work hard, prepare and believe in yourself. “Someone super successful like that, it’s great to hear. … I always try to catch on to those things.”
In response to questions from students, Montana offered his thoughts on contemporary players, saying Seahawk-turned-Bronco Russell Wilson is probably the one who plays the most like him and, like Montana, isn’t as big as some of the quarterbacks in the game today.
Parkersburg High School teacher Sam Vincent passes a laptop to a student so he can pose a question to NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana during a Zoom interview Thursday in the PHS library. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
“My roommate thought I was the kicker when I first got there (to San Francisco) because I was so skinny,” he said.
With some of the students taking a field trip soon to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, Vincent asked Montana what he thought about the institution. Montana said he didn’t give it much thought when he found out he was going to be inducted in 2000 and actually had a bit of a negative reaction.
“It felt like the nails in your coffin,” he said. “Then I started looking at it differently, like this is just being part of another great team.”
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.