Joe Montana on why he quit broadcasting: ‘I just didn’t like making those kinds of judgments on players’

So many of today’s most notable NFL color commentators are former quarterbacks: Troy Aikman, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, and Kirk Herbstreit come to mind.

It’s been that way for a long time, as big-time signal-callers who bring a wealth of knowledge about the game and a name-brand that networks enjoy promoting.

Successful, charming, and smart, Joe Montana might as well have been the prototype for the kind of NFL quarterback who transitions into broadcasting and never leaves the booth or studio.

The four-time Super Bowl champion joined NBC’s pregame show in 1995 after retiring and seemed, on paper, destined for a long career there. However, by the end of the season, he’d quit and never returned to broadcasting. Montana told the New York Post in 2021 that he didn’t enjoy criticizing players and that he actually called his wife at halftime of the Super Bowl to tell her he was done despite having another year on his contract.

Montana was making the rounds last week before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, CA, as the longtime San Francisco 49ers star still lives in the area. As part of that, he sat down with CNBC’s Alex Sherman to talk about his post-playing career. He also added insight into why he didn’t enjoy the broadcasting business.

Joe Montana on NFL players becoming broadcasters:

“You see so many times people were making judgments on a player or on what happened on the field, and they have no idea — meaning, they don’t know the play call, they don’t know the situation…”https://t.co/1SSaqKEtfJ

— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) February 12, 2026

“Coming from the other side as a player, you see so many times, people are making judgments on a player, or on what happened on the field, and they have no idea,” Montana told Sherman. “It would be hard to judge our receivers, our quarterbacks, that played under Bill [Walsh] because our receivers had so many adjustments they could make on a hook; a hook doesn’t always have to be a hook. A hook went to a post, it went to an out, it went to a cross. It just depended on the defense. So, as someone sitting up in the box, you have no idea what all those are, who misread who, and all that.

“I just didn’t like making those kinds of judgments on players. I was uncomfortable.”

Montana praised a few current broadcasters who he feels are willing to admit when they’re not sure why something is happening on the field.

“I think a couple of the guys do an extremely good job,” he said. “I haven’t seen much of Tom [Brady], but I know Troy [Aikman] and Tony Romo. I think when you look at how they analyze a game, it is a little bit different. They’ll even get into the ‘Well, I’m not sure…’

“When I was there, they just wanted you to be definitive, argumentative, and they didn’t care whether you were right or wrong, and I didn’t feel very good about that.”