NFL legend Joe Montana had a wonderful pregame routine with his wife Jennifer where he would call her during each game via the sideline phone just to say how much he loved her. This romantic tradition, which started during his playing days with the Niners, went on for a long period of time.
On the eve of Valentine’s Day this year, an old video of Montana resurfaced where he spoke about the sweet interaction with his wife, Jennifer Montana, and how surprised she would become on receiving the call in the middle of a serious live NFL game.
Montana and His Wife’s Throwback Video Resurface
The duo has been married for about 40 years now, but the love for each other remains unfazed. The resurfaced clip by NFL films has Montana sharing the story in a sit-down interview. He mentioned that it was a crazy moment when he found out that the team phone used to communicate with coaches and commentators in the stadium could make outside calls. It was just an experiment but turned out to be true.
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“I don’t know what made me do it. I’d hung up, and I’m sitting there going ‘Hmm, I wonder if these things call out,’ “ he mentioned while reminiscing. “So I pick up the phone and I hit — what do you normally do, you hit nine right? Give you an outside line. I hit nine, got a dial tone, I dial my house,” he quipped.
On receiving the phone, Jennifer was flabbergasted to know that it was Joe on the phone and the game was going on live. “The phone would ring, and I’d pick it up and it’d be Joe. I go, ‘What are you doing?’ “ she recalled. “He goes, ‘I’m calling you! I’m calling you to say I love you,’ ” she explained.
“And I go, ‘I love you,’ and I [ask], ‘How are you calling?’ He goes, ‘They have an outside line. I check in every stadium.’” Jennifer added with a big smile. It soon became a long time tradition and the dup often engaged in such pep talks, which was even captured in football cards from those days.
On several occasions, the Niners legend mentioned how Jennifer has always been a lucky charm for him. He believes she was one of the biggest reasons he won the 1989 Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals. She had his lucky jersey from the 1985 Super Bowl game packed all the way to Miami.
“When I got there, I opened it up and … there was a little note saying something like, ‘Hey, this was good luck for you last time. You might want to wear it again this time,” Montana said in an interview with Today back in 2003.
Their relationship has been flourishing ever since with the duo sharing two daughters, Alexandra and Elizabeth, and two sons, Nate and Nick.