I thought the parade of MVPs before the Super Bowl was pretty cool, but I wondered where Montana and Bradshaw were. Apparently, Montana wanted $100,000 to show up for the parade. And, there seem to be conflicting reports on why Bradshaw didn't show. Mike&Mike said he cited family issues, but the article suggests it was $$$. The only other living MVP who didn't show (Jake Scott--I sure didn't miss him) was traveling in Australia. Wonder how long he'd been down there...Regardless, here are the relevant articles.
If $1K was good enough for Bart Starr, Montana should have shown up with a big grin on his face. I'd love to speculate that maybe it was because his wife talked him out of going, but no point making any excuses for him.
Bradshaw, MAYBE FOX tried to give him an excuse to not appear on ABC, but surely he could have told them to stick it if he really wanted to, so no point making any excuses for HIM, either.
Sadly, the cable box was in mid-reboot during the beginning of the MVP intros so I missed seeing whether or not Desmond Howard had the look of a man who'd gotten away with something or not. ;-)
Does he need money? He's doing the FedEx commercial (which I like), and he's also doing promotion for some blood pressure drug. I saw him plugging that to death on Cold Pizza last week. I can't remember him doing promotional stuff like that (post playing days, that is) until the last year or so. Maybe he blew all his money on something.
Or, maybe Joe just didn't want to do it, and figured that if he asked for an outragous fee, they'd let him stay home. Of course, he was in Detroit, so it's not like he'd be going out of his way...
Originally posted by CRZIf $1K was good enough for Bart Starr, Montana should have shown up with a big grin on his face. I'd love to speculate that maybe it was because his wife talked him out of going, but no point making any excuses for him.
Bradshaw, MAYBE FOX tried to give him an excuse to not appear on ABC, but surely he could have told them to stick it if he really wanted to, so no point making any excuses for HIM, either.
Sadly, the cable box was in mid-reboot during the beginning of the MVP intros so I missed seeing whether or not Desmond Howard had the look of a man who'd gotten away with something or not. ;-)
FOX didn't stop Troy Aikman from showing up. So yeah, I don't think that's a good excuse for him.
The Bored are already here. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. And no... we won't kill dolphins. But koalas are fair game.
Originally posted by Roy.I can't remember him doing promotional stuff like that (post playing days, that is) until the last year or so. Maybe he blew all his money on something.
Montana was a "spokesman" for Hanes during his career and after it ended, if I remember correctly. I also recall him doing a series of ads where he was sitting at home wearing four Super Bowl rings on his hand. That was over two years ago, as I seem to recall; over one year at least. He did (and I imagine still does) lots of local spots in the Bay Area and up in Marin.
I don't remember Montana ever doing anything "dickish" in the past, and by all accounts I've heard, he seems to be a nice guy. I remember hearing that his wife was a brittle, controlling harridan, but nothing about him.
Echoing what Mike & Mike said, Kornheiser and Wilbon said that he declined so he could watch his son's basketball game. If that turns out to be a lie, I'll be disappointed and accept that. But for now I'm inclined to believe the guy if he wanted to put being involved in his kid's life ahead of running 30 yards and then standing still for 4 minutes. Yeah, I know fans would like to see Joe Cool again, but there's always ESPN and ESPNClassic.
EDIT: Joe apparently was also a spokesman for LA Gear, as evidenced by this clip:
Joe Montana is and will always be my favorite player of all time. And it's not really surprising that he didn't show up, out of all the key players from his day, he's one of the most prominent ones to not be in the spotlight. Terry Bradshaw's no-show was more of a surprise to me, especially since he's on TV every week.
This was the big topic on ATH & PTI today, and I think it's much ado about nothing. Ok, Montana & Bradshaw didn't show up, why not focus on the guys who did show up, and quit trying to put Montana & Bradshaw in a negative light??
ESPN Radio is reporting that Darrell Russell, famed Jokeland Raider bad boy and all-around nogoodnik, has begun serving his year long suspension for substance abuse!