NFL Trade Deadline: 30 greatest trades in NFL history
By Dan Parzych
6. 49ers trade Joe Montana to Chiefs
Keeping the trend rolling with the San Francisco 49ers, the whole intention of acquiring Steve Young from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 1987 was to hopefully land a reliable backup to Joe Montana.
One of the best parts about the NFL Draft is seeing which players selected in the middle rounds turn out to be absolute steals. That was exactly the case for Montana since the 49ers didn’t even select him until late in the third-round back in 1979 out of Notre Dame.
Does this mean San Francisco knew Montana would go on to have the amazing career he would as a four-time Super Bowl champion, three of which he took home MVP honors? Well, not necessarily since he only started eight games over his first two NFL seasons, with only one coming as a rookie.
It wasn’t until the 1981 season that Montana started all 16 games for the 49ers. He led the team to a Super Bowl win, with the famous Dwight Clark catch in the NFC Championship taking place along the way.
From that year on, Montana would go on to have a phenomenal career as the starting quarterback for San Francisco. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end at some point, whether a player is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer or not.
After dealing with injuries in the previous two seasons leading up to 1993, the 49ers would end up sending Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs. He would go 17-8 over the next two seasons before eventually calling it a career by announcing his retirement.
His time in Kansas City wasn’t even close to being as exciting as his time with the 49ers. At least Montana was able to help the Chiefs earn a trip to the 1993 AFC Championship in before falling to the Buffalo Bills.