Posted on 02/07/2006 3:55:32 AM PST by goarmy
Detroit -- Joe Montana, the only three-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, was one of only three Super Bowl MVPs who turned down the NFL's invitation to take part in pregame ceremonies for Super Bowl XL.
Montana also declined the league's invitation for a news conference with all the MVPs after Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's Friday news conference.
"We were disappointed we weren't able to work it out with him," said Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations.
The former MVPs were guaranteed $1,000 for incidental expenses while in Detroit. The NFL also provided each former Super Bowl MVP with two first-class airplane tickets, a hotel room, a Cadillac for the weekend, two tickets to the game, two tickets to the Friday night commissioner's party, two tickets to a Saturday night party and two tickets to a Sunday tailgate party. There also were opportunities for paid appearances arranged by the NFL.
To sources close to the league said Montana refused to attend over money. One of the sources said Montana asked for a guarantee of at least $100,000 for appearances if he came here, and the league said it would not make that guarantee. Tom Brady, who has won the Super Bowl MVP award twice, handled the coin toss to start the game, making him the first active player to perform that chore.
MVPs representing 32 of the 39 previous Super Bowls were on hand. Besides the 49ers' Montana, the only ones missing were Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw (a two-time MVP), Jake Scott (a Miami defensive back who was MVP in SB VII) and the late Harvey Martin (a Dallas defensive lineman who was co-MVP in SB XII). The issue with Bradshaw also reportedly was money; Scott is on vacation in Australia.
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(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Where did THAT come from?! Wishful thinking?
My son had indoor lacrosse on Super Bowl Sunday...and there was full slate of games after him.
Joe, at the height of his football career, insisted on an honorarium when his hometown, Monongahela, Pennsylvania (in the economically depressed coal/steel region south of Pittsburgh) wanted to honor him.
It left a bad feeling that clouded many townspeople's attitude toward Joe. Still, it didn't prevent the locals from naming a bridge on a new super highway after Joe. The other bridges on the highway are named after local Congressional Medal of Honor winners from the respective towns nearby.
One is left to ponder whether Joe needs the money that badly, which is sad.
Of course its wishful thinking.
All men want to be hung like a horse!
Bradshaw made a bad decision. He has a role in an upcoming movie, and his attendence would have generated publicity
for the movie.
Keith Richards died years ago, but the Grim Reaper is too scared of him to collect his body.
Now, I like Aaron Neville, and I'm a fan, even own an album or two of his..
But all this "renditioning" of the Star Spangled Banner has got to stop. Just SING THE SONG ALREADY. Don't "make it yours", don't "adapt it to the audience', just SING THE SONG.
that will be an interesting autopsy
You got that right! The 49ers under Walsh would have slaughtered either team -- hell, you could have combined both Pittshburg and Seattle and the old 49ers, the Redskins under Gibbs, Chicago under Ditka or the Cowboys of the early nineties would have smashed them. The League wanted parity and itstead got mediocrity.
Singing the song period! America the Beautiful or God Bless America are far superior songs.
Word.
Some older players get bitter (and jealous) about the amounts of money that newer players get. It happens in every sport. Even though they were the highest paid players of their era, they see the mediocre nobodies of today getting more money than they ever got at the heights of their careers, and it drives them nuts.
Now's not the time to take a dig at the guy.
When the Superbowl was in Houston a few years ago the NFL was looking for local volunteers to help run all the activities. Cheapskates couldn't even hire the people and pay them for their time. Needless to say alot of fools signed up.
LOL
Having said that, I think it is perfectly understandable for a retired football star to have a fixation on money. Pro football is the one sport where players are truly underpaid in comparison to other sports (when you consider the physical toll the game takes on them) , and yet the NFL is the most financially successful league of them all.
If coal miners or auto workers in this country had the life expectancy of a retired NFL player, there would be demands for Congressional investigations and a call to shut those industries down completely.
If Joe refused to show up for financial reasons, then I say good for him.
There might be more to it than that. NASCAR races often use "volunteers" to staff their concession stands. What this means, though, is that local non-profit organizations provide volunteers to work the stands -- and each organization keeps a portion of the gross sales from the stand it operates. Some groups cover their entire annual operating budget this way.
my thoughts: Bradshaw probably wanted money, but I wonder if there was a contract issue with Fox vs. ABC
Montana wanted the money. His excuse that he put football "behind him" (as reported on the radio this morning) is bs. He makes commercials in his uniform and does show up for appearances if the money is right.
He couldn't have been any worse than Aaron and Aretha.
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