After missing the 1991 season because of an injury, and playing part of one game in 1992, Joe Montana’s time with the 49ers had come to an end.
The Peacock docuseries “Joe Montana: Cool Under Pressure,” recounted how two teams were eager to land the two-time MVP: the Chiefs and Cardinals, who at that time were called Phoenix.
Montana revealed he would have made more money with the Cardinals, and Phoenix was offering a more lucrative trade offer to the 49ers.
“It came down between Arizona and Kansas City,” Montana said in the show. ”Arizona was going to pay almost three times what I was going to make in Kansas City.”
In a Los Angeles Times story from April 2015, then-Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill had told a Phoenix radio station that a framework for a deal was in place.
“We’ve had a number of conversations with the 49ers concerning any potential compensation if Montana came to the Cardinals,” Bidwill said. “We’ve discussed a number of scenarios, and I believe we’ve come to some sort of agreement with them.”
One problem: Montana wanted to play for a winner, and the Chiefs were coming off a playoff appearance in the 1992 season when they finished with a 10-6 record.
The Cardinals had the worst record in the NFC at 4-12.
And so, even though Montana would have made more money with the Cardinals, and the 49ers got a better deal with Phoenix, Montana ended up going to the Chiefs.
“They had worked out a better deal with Arizona than they did with Kansas City,” Montana recalled, “and we kept saying, ‘It’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen. I’ll retire before that happens.’”
In the 1993 season, Montana helped the Chiefs reached the AFC Championship Game, so he likely made the right choice.
Here is the clip from the docuseries.