Say it ain't so, Joe

I used to like Joe Montana. I admired his ability as a quarterback in the NFL, and thought he pretty much came off as a nice guy when I'd see him on television. That all came crashing down yesterday when I heard and later read about him at the Super Bowl.

For those of you who saw the beginning of the game, Tom Brady did the coin toss. While he showed an uncanny ability to perform the task, he wasn't the original choice. The original choice was also conspicuously absent from the parade of past Super Bowl MVP's. The original choice was three time Super Bowl MVP, famed quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers (and less famed quarterback of the Kansas City Cheifs), Joe Montana.

The players who showed up for the parade of past Super Bowl MVPs were given $1000, 2 tickets to the game and invites to virtually any party they wanted to attend that week. While it isn't exactly NFL player type compensation, it's not a bad way to spend a few days. From a fan's perspective, I thought the parade was a pretty cool thing. Joe Namath, showing off 'Jets' sewn in the lining of his jacket, is a memory that will stick with me, and I'm not even a Jets fan. Well, that wasn't enough for Joe Montana. He demanded a $100,000 appearance fee, and when the NFL balked, he took his smile and went home, saying he needed to spend time with his family, and that, "A lot of people just don't understand that while it's a great event and it's tremendous, I've moved on with my life. People think I need to be stuck with football the rest of my life." Now, understand that he was in Detroit the whole week, not being stuck with football and moving on with his life. I don't know, but I'm guessing the fact that the Super Bowl was there was purely coincidence. Joe might have been looking for a new car, and went right to the corporate source or something like that. Hey, it could happen. He left right before the game because the NFL wouldn't pay him...errrrr...he really needed some family time.

Newsflash, Joe. You are stuck with football. Football is the only reason people know who you are and the only reason you're obscenely rich. The next ad agency to call you up to do an endorsement ain't calling because you cured cancer, or just because they think you're a heck of a nice family guy. It's because of football, and damn right...you owe football. Football gave you the framework to do what you did and made you who you are, and is the major reason you continue to make money today. Without football, you're asking people if they've considered whole life. I'm in the middle of Turbo Tax season, so I'm painfully aware that $100,000 is easily more than I make in a year. What reason, aside from football, did you think gave you the balls to ask for that to flip a coin? Stuck with it? You should be gratefully reveling in football! Play the family card all you want, but when you play it after being dissed for your appearance fee, it comes off lame, and takes greed to a whole new level, and it makes you come off like an asshole.