Notre Dame football: Brian Kelly soured Joe Montana on Irish
If you’ve watched Notre Dame football over the past couple of years you’ve probably seen a Guinness commercial or two featuring the most famous NFL star to ever come from the university, Joe Montana.
Montana was a Notre Dame legend long before helping the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl titles. Montana hasn’t been around Notre Dame events much recently, but it would appear the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and 1977 national champion for the Fighting Irish is seeing the school he attended in a positive light again.
And the latest Notre Dame head coach appears to be a major reason why.
I saw this on social media Sunday and thought it was worth sharing. Jude (@ndjrs) writes for One Foot Down and has as strong of grasp on Notre Dame football history as seemingly anyone these days. Pete Sampson covers Notre Dame for The Athletic. Here is their brief conversation.
Spent a little time with Montana on Friday and asked about that. The Kelly relationship basically soured him on Notre Dame. He couldn’t remember the last Notre Dame game he attended. But he did develop a relationship with Freeman in the past year.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) August 27, 2023
Montana isn’t the only former Notre Dame player to make it seem that they weren’t too welcomed around the program under Brian Kelly. Marcus Freeman made alumni relations at least somewhat of a priority upon being named head coach and it would appear whatever was done went a long way with Montana.
It should be noted that Montana’s son Nate played at Notre Dame under Kelly during the 2010 season before transferring to Montana and eventually West Virginia Wesleyan.
Hopefully Montana and plenty of other players from yesteryear continue showing up more often. Its a tough look when once proud alums can’t even endorse the program they put their own blood, sweat, and tears into.
