Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 26, 1993 TAG: 9304260390
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"We both wear helmets," a grinning Joe Montana said. "And there's contact."
Montana, who is goin' to Kansas City as the new Chiefs quarterback after leaving at least part of his heart and four Super Bowl titles in San Francisco, enjoyed his Sunday visit to Martinsville Speedway.
Montana was the grand marshal of the Hanes 500, and was the second NFL quarterback to appear at the race on NFL draft day in as many years. After what's happened to Montana in the past two weeks, however, a day watching others go in circles was welcome.
Last year, fellow Hanes wearer and endorser Boomer Esiason was sitting in a box above the track when he learned that Cincinnati had selected David Klingler as the Bengals' quarterback of the future. Boomer clearly wasn't happy. Now, he's a New York Jet.
Nothing as stunning greeted Montana, who rode up from Greensboro, N.C., where he spent Saturday night. As the car in which he was riding drove down the road into the track, Montana seemed somewhat awed by the racing team souvenir trailers doing brisk business.
"I've never been to an event like this," Montana said of the big business. "I've never seen that before. What I really liked was that big [inflated] beer can out there. That kind of set the tone for the day."
The purse race was $672,791, or slightly more than Montana will earn in two games this season - the $4.9 million start to his three-year, $10.5 million contract.
The transplanted Pennsylvanian, by way of Notre Dame, seemed very much the regular Joe - except for the crowd that suddenly began to ignore the drivers and started following Montana as he was escorted through the pits.
That brought the most contact Montana has had in a while. After all, he's only played two quarters in the past two seasons. He's had surgery on his throwing arm six times, plus major back surgery.
"You don't know where I can get Wise Potato Chips down here, do you?" Montana wondered. "I miss those. They don't have them in San Francisco. And Slim Jim's. I kind of miss those, too."
It figures that once he goes to training camp with his new team - he will celebrate his 37th birthday before then - Montana will miss San Francisco, too.
"I figured I'd be somewhere else right from the beginning [of the negotiations on his future]," Montana said. "George Seifert [the 49ers' coach] said Steve [Young] was the starter. That was clear.
"I didn't agree with the decision - I just wanted a chance to compete - but he felt it was a decision he had to make. So, after other meetings I decided I'd try to find another team."
Then, after Montana had gotten an offer from Phoenix and had agreed to terms with KC, pending a trade, the 49ers told him he was the starter again.
"I was shocked," he said. "But I had already reached a decision as to what I wanted to do.
"It was a tough decision. Phoenix has added a lot of people, including Gary Clark, who's a great receiver, and the money offer there was tremendous."
Yes, it was about $4 million more than the Chiefs offered. However, Kansas City had installed the 49ers' split-back offense, and its ace in the hole was Montana's former quarterback coach, Paul Hackett, who is the Chiefs' new offensive coordinator.
"The biggest thing to deal with was the frustration, just trying to get the deal done and then the trade made," the quarterback said. "Now that that's behind me, I have a lot to do. I spent a lot of time studying my new playbook on the plane coming in."
Montana will wear No. 19 for Kansas City, but that really is nothing new. It's not only the sum of his uniform numbers at San Francisco and Notre Dame. It's also the number he wore in Pop Warner football back in Western Pennsylvania - like when he was 13, the last time the Chiefs reached the Super Bowl.
In the Martinsville pits, the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing greeted Montana, and joked about how many times the aging quarterback passed by Gibbs' former team en route to the Super Bowl.
Montana counts driver Davey Allison as a sporting friend, and he seemed intrigued by Gibbs' team ownership. However, don't expect to see Montana in NASCAR pits en route to the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
"My wife can't stand football," Montana said, laughing. "So, she's certainly not going to put up with that."
The plan was to have Gibbs' driver Dale Jarrett wear the 49ers' helmet at the Hanes race in Montana's honor. Then came the trade, but an incensed Jarrett had damaged the Chiefs' racing helmet when he threw it at Bobby Hillin's car a few weeks ago at Bristol International Raceway.
So, Jarrett wore the San Francisco helmet, and Montana held the Kansas City helmet as a TV prop.
It looked like it would fit.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB