Super Bowl XXIII - "Isn't That John Candy?"
Joe Montana orchestrated 31 fourth-quarter comebacks in his Hall of Fame career, and one of them, on January 22, 1989, dramatically lifted his 49ers to a Super Bowl title. San Francisco was playing Cincinnati at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, and for three quarters, Montana was unable to guide his team into the end zone. After a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by the Bengals’ Stanford Jennings, the 49ers trailed, 13-6. In the fourth quarter, Montana came alive, throwing a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Rice to tie the game. After a Bengals field goal with under four minutes left, the Niners got the ball back on their own 8. In these tense moments, Montana was typically calm. “Isn’t that John Candy?” he said to his tackle, Harris Barton, as Montana glanced into the crowd and spotted the actor. Montana then got to work: in less than three minutes, Montana completed eight of nine passes – three of them to Rice and three to Roger Craig – the last of which was a 10-yard touchdown to John Taylor with 34 seconds left. The game-winning score gave the 49ers a 20-16 comeback victory. It was the third of four Super Bowl titles for the Montana-led 49ers in the 1980s.