Word: montana
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Right or wrong, someone who knows nothing about Milton, Marlowe and Jonson is safer from ridicule than someone who is ignorant of Ickey, Montana and Boomer. At least for this week...
...football, began with Paul Brown. He hired Bill Walsh in the 1960s to assist in coaching the new Cincinnati Bengals. When Walsh got his own command in San Francisco, reserve quarterback Sam Wyche followed along to tutor passers. Together Wyche and Walsh scouted and drafted Notre Dame's Joe Montana. In two triumphant Super Bowls, Montana has been the player of the game. Now he is the central figure in a third...
...Browns won the game that night, the title that year and the decade on balance. Montana is Van Buren now, and it is the decade that the 49ers are after. For the first time in his ten seasons, San Francisco's darling quarterback has had an internal rival, one with the disturbing name of Steve Young. Montana is only 32 but has charted enough maladies, highlighted by back surgery two years ago, to feel older. His favorite receiver and off-field running mate, Dwight Clark, 32, retired with creaky knees this season. "Losing Clark," coach Walsh theorizes, "may have started...
Walsh's delight in taking quarterbacks apart and putting them back together again also affected Montana's spirit. Recognizing the opponent's quandary in preparing for both -- Montana is a drop-back passer, Young a rollout runner -- Walsh coyly invented a quarterback controversy. He cut it out only when Joe started rolling steel balls in a clenched fist while quoting Y.A. Tittle on the three ages of athletic life. "Y.A. told me that when you're young, they love you. When you're in the middle, they hate you. But when you're old, they love you again...
...that standard, Montana must be a codger. Since his 34-9 and 28-3 displays against Minnesota and Chicago, the Bay Area has never loved him more. Esiason won most of this year's quarterback awards, but Montana has no peer at the moment. Along with Walsh's brain and Montana's arm, a 49er composite features receiver Jerry Rice's hands and Roger Craig's legs. The handiest all- around back in football, Craig is one of three ex-Nebraska runners on call. "It isn't just that they're sound fundamentally," Walsh says, "it's that they love...