That time the Bears nearly drafted Joe Montana
That Time We Almost Drafted Joe Montana
Chicago with an All-Star caliber Super Bowl contender QB is like Aaron Rodgers with a shred of decency, it's never been seen before.
Some arguments can be made, especially for some of the pre-NFL QBs we had. In fact, our last first-team All-Pro QB was Johnny Lujack back in 1950! We had come close in the past tho when in 1979 the Bears were heavily pursuing a young Joe Montana in the draft. The Bears wanted to pick Montana and Bill Tobin told the Bears to take him before the third round. «For a month prior to the draft, whenever we would do a mock, we'd get to the third round, and if Montana was there, we were going to take him,» said Jerry Vainisi, the Bears' treasurer in 1979 and later the team's general manager, told Pompei. «There was no other possibility.»
The Bears had the 66th pick and Montana was still on the board, perfect scenario right?
GM Jim Finks had other plans where he was worried about the depth behind Payton and QBs Bob Avellini, Vince Evans, and Mike Phillips. The Bears went with RB Willie McClendon who had two touchdowns throughout his four-year career. The 49'ers took Montana who then won them four Super Bowls so even trade I guess. With Montana at the helm and McMahon as a backup who knows what the 80's Bears could have done. Personally, I would have signed a potato as Payton's backup since he didn't need it anyway and signed Joe.
Not much of a silver lining to the story I suppose, more so highlighting a long history of questionable Bears picks while also being grateful that Poles is in charge now. With a revamped young hungry Bears team maybe now is when we finally get our Joe.
Article Written by: Joseph Scott King
