Monday Morning Quarterback #47 Joe Montana 1992 Sky Box

In this ongoing series of posts I am going to feature cards from my fantasy football player collection, specifically the 117 quarterbacks I've had on my team's roster since 1980. I have one selected card for each player in my All-Time Flyers binder. Through the years I've tried to use as many different card varieties as possible while holding on to my preference which is: a card issued in a year I owned the player showing him in the proper team uni in a vertical format. Card availability and my whims have had a big impact on that standard. 

NFL Info: Not much I can say about Joe Montana that people don't already know. Here is the summary of his achievements and awards from Wikipedia:

• 4× Super Bowl champion (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV)
• 3× Super Bowl MVP (XVI, XIX, XXIV)
• 8× Pro Bowl (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987,1989, 1990, 1993)
• 3× AP First Team All-Pro (1987, 1989, 1990)
• 2x NFL MVP (1989, 1990) (AP, PFWA, NEA, SN,MX)
• 2× AP Second Team All-Pro (1981, 1984)
• 1989 NFL Offensive Player of the Year (AP, PW)
• 4× NFC champion (1981, 1984, 1988-1989)
• PFW NFL Comeback Player of the Year (1986)
• UPI NFC Player of the Year (1989)
• 1989 Sportsman/Athlete of the Year (AP, SN)
• 1990 Sportsman/Athlete of the Year (AP, SI)
• 1977 NCAA Division I National Champion
• Cotton Bowl Classic MVP (1979)
• NFL 1980s All-Decade Team
• NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
• San Francisco 49ers #16 retired
• Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (2000)

I spent probably the most miserable day of my life watching Joe Montana lead his Fighting Irish to a win in the 1979 Cotton Bowl over my Houston Cougars with a last second TD pass. I've been to more football games than I can count but I've never been involved in one with such incredibly awful conditions. It was bitterly cold, the wind blew the whole game, the field was frozen (they used rock salt on it... bad idea) and the stadium, every inch of it and all of the rest of Dallas, was covered with a coating of ice.

I'll never forget how crappy the whole ordeal was. Blowing a big lead to Notre Dame just made it worse. This segment of the CBS broadcast captures the surreal ending. I check to make sure the video works, but I can't bear to watch it.

Fantasy Impact: I had Joe Montana in 1989 and he had a typical Montana year. He helped me go 9-4-1 in the regular season and got me to the championship game, which I lost.

The Card: I was fan of Sky Box football sets and this '92 set in particular. I thought the photography was first rate and the cards are attractive without being overly busy. The back has a different picture, stats and a box that highlights the player's position. I guess they were aiming at younger collectors. All in all this is a nice card from a decade of over produced look-alikes.