Grrr.

[yendi]

According to a source familiar with Montana's situation, the former three-time MVP asked that he be guaranteed $100,000 in appearance money during his time at the Super Bowl. The league could not accommodate that request, so Montana declined to be in attendance.

Hey, Joe? You what I'll guarantee? I'll guarantee that I'll think of you as greedy asshole until your dying day. And then I'll think of you as a dead greedy asshole.

Comments

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

It could also be possible that Montana simply didn't want to go, and therefore attached conditions he knew couldn't be met in order to bow out.

But it is tacky either way.

JSM

[kradical.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's tacky at all, and I don't think he's greedy at all. ABC was charging two million dollars a commercial. Look at what they were doing at the Super Bowl -- setting up an entire concert arena in about three and a half seconds, then getting rid of it without damaging the field in time for the second-half kickoff, which is incredibly difficult and expensive. Look at what they charge for tickets and concessions. Look at how much conspicuous goddamn consumption is going on all over that game.

If anything, $100,000 is lowballing it.

We live in a capitalist society that rewards people with money and punishes people without it, where success is defined by who has the most money and failure by who has the least. Montana's just playing by the rules, and that doesn't make him greedy at all, it just makes him observant of his surroundings.

[yendi]

Except that this was a part of the pre-game (which not only had lower rates, but had 40+ MVPs, all at at an honorarium of $1000 each, and the sum total of whom would have cost more than ABC made on showing that segment if they'd all asked for $100K), which was also more a tribute to the history of the game than anything else (had it not happened, ratings wouldn't have suffered one iota). And, Joe had stated publically last week that he wasn't attending because he had to go to one of his son's games (something I don't find objectionable in the least). So he was either full of it, or he placed the value of missing his son's game at $100K, which strikes me as surprisingly low for a man in his financial situation.

And, of course, there's also the investment factor -- showing up would have increased his marketability or kept it roughly the same. Looks like not showing up, however, is proving at least a temporary hit to his reputation, judging by google news, deadspin.com, etc.

Of course, there's now a third theory, suggesting that it was actually Joe's wounded ego rebelling against the idea of sharing a stage with Steve Young.

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

You took the words right out of my mouth. Personally, I watched the pregame *solely* for the MVP parade, just for the history of the game aspect, so at least my microscopic ratings blip wouldn't have been there if they didn't do it.

The thing is, it's not like this was Joe Willie Namath and his already-blown reputation ("I wanna kiss you") - this was Joe Montana, generally considered in the discussion as greatest QB of all time, three-time Super Bowl MVP, all-around good guy, coming off as a greedy, materialistic bozo.

Bradshaw no-showed the ceremony, too, but there doesn't appear to be a dollar-sign attached to him. He just said he wanted to spend the time with family, and wasn't even at the game (but then, he's got long-standing heat with Pittsburgh fans and the organization dating back to his playing days).