On the morning of Super Bowl XXIII, Joe Montana’s wife Jennifer made it a point to retrieve the jersey her husband wore, which he first wore during the San Francisco 49ers’ 38-16 win over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX. and put it in her bag with a note.
“You might want to bring it back,” the note read, according to ESPN.
Montana did just that, and indeed it became his lucky jersey when the Hall of Fame QB led the 49ers on a memorable, game-winning 92-yard drive that became famous as “The Drive”.
That same jersey recently sold for $1.212 million, breaking the previous record paid for a soccer jersey at auction. The previous record was $480,000 paid for a Tom Brady jersey in January 2022.
“It’s only right that the two greatest quarterbacks of all time are still trading records, even in retirement,” Ken Goldin, who is the founder of the marketplace where the jersey was sold, said in a statement via ESPN. “Montana was already in rarefied air with four championship rings and three Super Bowl MVPs… [and] with record sales of his Super Bowl XXIII jersey, Montana has passed Tom Brady to the top of that mountain.”
The record-setting sale of Montana’s jersey was part of a month-long auction that included a number of items from his personal memorabilia collection. Montana’s Super Bowl XXIV jersey was also included in the auction, selling for $720,000.
Montana won four Super Bowls (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV) during his Hall of Fame career, in addition to winning the 1977 national championship at Notre Dame.
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