Joe Montana announced his retirement before a huge crowd at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. The event was broadcast live on local television, and included speeches from John Madden, Eddie DeBartolo, Jr., and others. Highlights from Montana’s stay with San Francisco and interviews with former 49ers teammates were also shown. Bill Walsh served as the MC for the event. Montana’s replacement with the Chiefs was his former backup in San Francisco, Steve Bono. Super Bowl XXX would be dedicated to Montana, who ended the pregame ceremonies with the ceremonial coin toss.
For his career with the San Francisco 49ers, Montana completed 2,929 of 4,600 passes for 35,142 yards with 244 touchdowns and 123 interceptions. He had 35 300-yard passing games including 7 in which he threw for over 400 yards. His career totals: 3,409 completions on 5,391 attempts, 273 touchdowns, 139 interceptions, and 40,551 yards passing. He also rushed for 1,676 yards and 20 touchdowns. When Montana retired, his career passer rating was 92.3, second only to his 49er successor Steve Young (96.8). He has since been surpassed by five other players, which ranks his passer rating at 7th all-time. Montana also had won 100 games faster than any other quarterback until surpassed by Tom Brady in 2008. His record as a starter was 117-47. His number 16 was retired by the 49ers on December 15, 1997 during halftime of the team’s game against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. Montana also held the record for most passing yards on a Monday night game with 458 against the Los Angeles Rams in 1989 (surpassed by Tom Brady who accumulated 517 in 2011).
Montana holds postseason records for most career touchdown passes (45), games with a passer rating over 100.0 (12) and is second in passing yards (5,772) and games with 300+ passing yards (6, tied with Kurt Warner). He also tied Terry Bradshaw’s record for consecutive playoff games with at least two touchdown passes (7). In his four Super Bowls, Montana completed 83 of 122 passes for 1,142 yards and 11 touchdowns with no interceptions, earning him a passer rating of 127.8. Montana led his team to victory in each game, and is the only player ever to win three Super Bowl MVP awards. Montana also holds the record for most Super Bowl pass completions (83) and pass attempts (122) without throwing an interception.
He was selected to the Pro Bowl eight times and selected All-Pro six times. He is also the only player to have two touchdown passes of 95+ yards. In 2000, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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