Joe Montana 'The Drive' jersey sells for astonishing $1.21M, shattering 2022 record set by Tom Brady jersey

The record for most expensive football jersey ever sold at auction no longer belongs to a 2021 Tom Brady jersey. It now belongs to the Joe Montana jersey the Hall of Fame quarterback wore during two of his Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, which recently sold for an astonishing $1.212 million to an unnamed buyer.

That shatters the previous record for Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey, which sold in 2022 for $480,000, by a massive $732,000. Both auctions were handled by Goldin.

This jersey is essentially Montana's lucky jersey. He first wore it during the Niners' 38-16 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX. Four years later, just hours before the Niners were set to play the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII, the jersey suddenly reappeared in his life. Via ESPN:

Montana was wearing that jersey when he engineered "The Drive," which marched the Niners a stunning 92 yards down the field to score a game-winning touchdown which put them up 20-16 over the Bengals.

"It's only right that the two greatest quarterbacks of all-time are still trading off records, even in retirement," Ken Goldin, founder of the eponymous marketplace, said in a statement via ESPN. "Montana was already in rarefied air with four championship rings and three Super Bowl MVPs — [and] with the record-breaking sale of his Super Bowl XXIII jersey, Montana has surpassed Tom Brady on top of that mountain."

Brady's 2021 Bucs jersey was pushed even further down the list by another Montana jersey from the same sale. The jersey Montana wore in Super Bowl XXIV, in which the Niners walloped the Denver Broncos 55-10, sold for $720,000 including the buyer's premium. That 45-point win still holds the record for the largest margin of victory in a Super Bowl.