It appears that somebody at NBC may have pressed the wrong button on Saturday.
NBC was broadcasting Notre Dame’s season opener against Navy when an embarrassing goof made its way onto the air. In attendance at the game was Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, who was a standout at Notre Dame and led them to the 1977 national title. Montana was recognized during a timeout in the third quarter, but NBC over-mythologized him just a little.
The broadcast identified Montana as a “5-Time Super Bowl Champion.”
Congrats to Joe Montana for finally inheriting Steve Young’s Super Bowl pic.twitter.com/puF1Y3sgNm
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) August 26, 2023
As much as Montana would like to be a five-time Super Bowl champ though, he “only” won four of them. Montana brought the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl titles in 1982, 1985, 1989, and 1990, earning Super Bowl MVP honors three of those times. But Montana eventually found himself ousted as the starter and got traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993 (per his own request). Montana’s longtime backup, Steve Young, then led San Francisco to a fifth Super Bowl title in 1995.
Either all that history was lost on NBC or someone just pressed a “5” while typing that up when it was meant to be a “4.” On the bright side though, at least this was a much smaller-scale event than the one from the last time that NBC messed up on the air.
