Tom Brady spent most of his career breaking Joe Montana’s records, but the former 49ers quarterback just returned the favor.
Montana’s game-worn jersey from the comeback Super Bowl win over the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII just sold for over $1.212 million to an unnamed buyer, according to ESPN. The number shatters the previous record held by a 2021 Tom Brady Tampa Bay Buccaneers game-worn jersey that sold for $480,000. Montana’s jersey sold for $732,000 more.
The Montana jersey was also worn during the Super Bowl XIX win over the Miami Dolphins. Joe Montana’s wife, Jennifer, was the one who encouraged him to wear it again four years later.
The morning of the latter Super Bowl, Montana’s wife, Jennifer, pulled the jersey from a scrapbook and packed it in Joe’s stadium bag with a note: “Maybe you want to wear it again.” So he did.
“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.”