Posted on 02/06/2006 8:43:26 AM PST by joyspring777
When the NFL unveiled its MVPs from the previous 39 Super Bowls, only three living members skipped the ceremony.
Former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana and former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw decided to stay home, while former Dolphins MVP Jake Scott was traveling in Australia.
Montana, the league's only three-time Super Bowl MVP, turned down the invitation over money, Newsday and the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Bradshaw, who told league officials that he wanted to be with his family, also took issue with the fees, the Chronicle reported. Bradshaw, through a representative, denied the Chronicle's report that there was a dispute over money.
Former MVPs were given $1,000 for incidental expenses while in Detroit, along with other amenities such as plane tickets, car rental and game tickets.
Sources told each paper that Montana asked for a guarantee of at least $100,000 in appearance money.
When the league balked at Montana's demands, the quarterback declined to be in attendance.
It was funny that the Steeler fans booed Tom Brady and Deion Branch, the MVPs of the last two SB's, as they entered the stadium. The Pats could have given the Steelers a better game than anyone they faced in the playoffs (as we did when we beat them in Pitt earlier this year). Too bad we don't meet in the regular season on 2006...
Belligerent and ignorant attacks upon the greatest cities in our nation and the world are stupid, yes.
Even Detroit has its good points.
No one wants group think around here but there are millions of voters within these cities who voted for Bush and who actually provide the talent, brains and wealth to the parasites who also live there and vote RAT. Insulting these cities insults them as well.
Why should Montana lend his name and presence to a profit making enterprise for less than his price? Would an oscar winner? Hell, a speaker won't come to commencement without his hefty "honorarium." Montana has hardly snubbed a charity, he has declined to expose himself in a garish spectacle which featured the likes of Mike Jagger for $1000 and a dish of porrige. He is free to do so.He is ethically and morally free to do so. He is not "cheap" but brimming with integrity. Merely repeating conclusionary statements to the contraty does not make him otherwise.
I can only say that if you think the capital of hype, the Super Bowl, is somehow so sacred that the normal rules of commerce do not apply, you are probably naive enough to think you can get a free ticket merely for the asking. This is not sport, it is the business of sport. On the field where they show us sport, we cannot apply soccer rules to the game of football. For the hype, we cannot substitute distorted notions of "history" and "greatness" for the laws of supply and demand.
Next, we will be treated to calls on FR for Exxon to surrender its "unconscionable" profits.
When I was a boy I was a rabid Brooklyn Dodger fan until I awoke to find my heroes had decamped to LA. My ten year old heart eventually mended and I have Walter O'Malley to thank for a lesson in reality which I have never forgotten. The Germans have a saying, " Schnapps is Schnapps und Geschaeft ist Geschaeft" Booze is booze but business is business.
Walter O'Malley must have had some German blood in him, would you deny Montana the same ethnic claim? We all love our heroes but that should be kept in the field and not exported where it does not fit.
If we remember that greatness on the field is not the equivalent of moral virtue off the field, we will be less disappointed when Joe cannot say, "...it ain't so." Montana is not deserving of either our opprobrium or adulation for his life off the field because of his previous exploits on it.
img src="http://schetula.de/schule/ltg_informatik_forum/files/nathan_bedford_forrest.jpg">
Long and lame response. I hope your are not a cheap person a Joe Montana is, you will find great difficulty in your life.
Well, we can at least veritably say that you response was not long.
Well, we can at least veritably say that you response was not long.
The next NFL-sponsored event you attend - all fans, players, former players will be wondering "How much coin did it take to get you to grace us with your presnece."
For the record, I'm a Dallas Cowboy hater, so by default a 49er fan. My real team is the Washington Redskins.
(In the voice of DR. EVIL) 100 BILLION DOLLARS.
That's what Joe should have asked for !!
100 Billion, at the very least.
If you qualify all my comments, you can make them say anything you want them to...then blow them apart.
I am talking about moslems who come to America, under the underpinnings of our liberties, commit to abide by the Constitution.
I don't believe the Koran FORCES any of them to kill or whatever. It is the verses taken out of context by lopside and twisted men called imams in dark places of the world that make the verses say that.
I also read the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, and I know that he points out some really hideous stuff. There have been men down through the times of Muhammad who say this verse says this, or is really translated this way or that. They are wrong...plain and simple.
Moslems who come here MUST reject those twisted beliefs, abide by our Constitutional system with it Bill of Rights...or go back home.
If they lie in hiding trying to make our C say something else, they will have to convince Congress (both Houses) to pass an amendment, and 2/3rds of the states would have to ratify. They can try, but the Supremes would throw it out.
If they do things at a City, County or State level...it will be challenged to the courts and thrown out.
The SCOTUS said once in an opinion in the 40s, that this country is designed to be ruled by those most passionate to get involved, organized and work.
If we are not those passionate people...we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Cities are the fruits of people. Cities are really bunches of people living together.
To hate a City is irrational. You did not say ALL CITIES, which is more defensible. You appeared to indicate those that have growing portions of moslems in them.
This is injurious to your emotional health, and makes you look quite intolerant.
Montana freaking retired over 11 years ago. How can he claim a workers comp claim now? He should have filed it in 94 or reasonably thereafter.
"rightfully owed, and earned."
You are assuming a lot here. I don't care who he beat. Some folks still function from a "me" and "entitlement" mentality. That is how I see this bearing out for him, and you are defending him without facts.
and the Denver Broncos kicked your Patriots butts twice this year.
First time miracle working B got beat once in the season, and again in the playoffs. Brady's streak was broken, and Bs streak was broken. End of streaks.
Brady is a good QB in a great system.
Not a great QB (like Elway) with a mediocre coach (Reeves) who couldn't strategically draft to save his life.
Thank God for Shanahan.
he has 3 super bowl MVP's King Size small? The NFL is CHEAP!
So its ok to make people work all week for free? How many people would do that?
Montana was being SMALL (like Bradshaw), unlike the other 30+ folks who did do a goodwill tour for the fans, and the world of those watching.
SMALL is bad! Magnanimous is good.
Small in its case of judging character.
So...the NFL should have sat down with each of the previous MVPs and said, we think each of you is worth such, then such, then such, then such, and caused so many hurt feelings because so and so is worth only that much, and I am only worth this?
Ridiculous to the extreme!
Maybe an article will be done by someone who investigates how the whole thing came off.
I believe it is safe to assume that all the others said, wow...another day on the field in front of the stadium full of fans and 1 Billion people around the world on TV...I am coming for it. Send me the tickets (I'll bring my bride, my son, my daughter, or someone).
Joe and Terry say, no I need more $.
That is SMALL in character, not capitalistic...and they both will pay for it for the rest of their lives among their peers on the golf course, lost invitations to parties/celebrity golf tournaments, in their interviews and work as analysts, etc. etc. etc. Joe's stock went down the lowest.
Dickie V would say STOCK DOWN BABY!!!
they dont gice a rats@*S! their already in the hall of fame! Show me the money NFL your making enough. All the guys should have gotten 100,000.
You are assuming that both the reporter and their "anonymous sources" (if they exist) are telling the truth about the reasons Montana and Bradshaw were not present.
What possible rational basis do you have for accepting this (anonymous) REPORTERS hit piece based on anonymous sources?
I repeat: IT'S A REPORTER!!!!!!!
Lying is their business.
Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. There is NOTHING in this article and no other source given to support this story.
When a player retires with an injury or injuries that occurred during his NFL career, the team still has a responsiblity to rehab the guy and pay the medical expenses. Knees, backs, shoulders, necks, you name it, those injuries can be chronic and can require repeated treatment and surgeries over many years. Sometimes a situation is treated with therapy for a number of years, with the idea that at some point, the guy will require a surgery. I'll try to find the article from yesterday and get it to you, to give you some idea about how badly these guys fall apart post-career, and how the NFL and its teams do their best to avoid paying for medical treatment they are obligated to pay. It's a good article.
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