Joe Montana Used to Call His Wife During Games to Say, ‘I love you’

Joe Montana
Wally McNamee/CORBIS via Getty Images
Dylan Gwinn

For those of you claiming you are too busy to call your wives, husbands, or significant others from work, your life just got a lot harder.

In a clip shared by NFL Films, Hall of Famer and 49er legend Joe Montana revealed that he eventually figured out stadium telephones had the ability to call outside the facility simply by pressing “9,” then the number. So, when did Montana decide to dial out of the stadium? During warm-ups? After the game? You know, times when he wasn’t that busy?

Nope. Montana decided to call in the middle of the game. And who did he call? He called his wife to tell her that he loved her.

As Montana’s wife recalls, “‘I’m calling to say I love you.’ And I go, ‘I love you. How are you calling?’ He goes, ‘They have an outside line.”

As surprising and awesome as this is, maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. Montana was famous for having the ability to divide his attention between the game and other things.

On January 22, 1989, with 3:20 remaining in the Super Bowl and the 49ers pinned at their own 8-yard-line on the wrong end of a 16-13 score, San Francisco’s Harris Barton became enraged that they were in such a bad position and in danger of losing the championship to the Bengals.

How did Montana handle this ultra-stressful situation? He pointed out actor John Candy in the crowd.

Barton soon forgot all about the game, and the temporary distraction gave the 9ers some relief before they drove 92 yards for the game-winning score. And that was in the Super Bowl!

In any event, Joe Montana hasn’t played in nearly 30 years and still manages to keep getting cooler and cooler.

But yeah, those of you claiming to be too busy to say “I love you” from work, not sure where you go from here.

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