– Are you always super cool or
did you sometimes get nervous Or did doubt creep in when
you were playing games? – I don't think doubt
creeped in but I think nerves Are part of the game, a part of anything. But because of how well
I thought I was prepared, And those nerves were a
lot smaller than most. I mean, I always explain to my kids, When I'm talking to kids, I
think one of the best examples Is okay, you're going to take a test Whether it's high school,
college whatever it might be. How nervous are you when
you're not prepared? You know you're not prepared Compared to you've done all
the work, you ready to go, You walk in there with confidence. – I'm Prerna Gupta, a tech
founder and in this series, I'll explore how
exceptional people succeed By following their hero's journey. The defining moment in
every hero's journey Is the point where the hero
feels that all is lost. That's when he has to dig
deep and master the strength And courage to push
forward and get the win. You're known as the comeback king. Take us through one of your
greatest comebacks of all time. Can you set up a pivotal play
for us and help us understand, What was going through
your mind in that moment? – I don't know if there's pivotal plays But there were two
probably of the comebacks That stick out in my mind. My last game at Notre Dame
we played in the Cotton Bowl In one of the coldest games
ever we played Houston And the wind was blowing
so hard in one direction. There was actually 69
points scored in the game And only 14 points were
scored against the wind And one of them was a punt,
got blocked and was returned
For a touchdown otherwise
you couldn't do anything And it was just that when we came out, I came out of the end of that I was sick. I got sick, I had to stay in
a locker room at halftime, Came out late third quarter we
were down 35 to three or 13, I can't remember the exact score. But all of a sudden it changed, the wind. But in the meantime, I had fumbled And I mean it was so cold. More people were watching
the game in their car Than in the stadium. On their vehicle outside 'cause
it was also got out of hand Since it was a score so more
lopsided and no one kind, (Joe clears throat) Everybody was leaving but
we ended up getting the wind And no matter whether,
I fumbled or I fumbled Right at the end of the game When we were driving, I
thought, oh, this is it, And I sit on the ground,
I put my hands on my head And go on and I may just lost this And then they go for it on fourth down And they don't win inches
and they don't make it. We get the ball back with like 26 seconds And we go down and score and
ended up winning the game And then obviously the
catch sticks out of my mind And it was the similar type game. I really didn't play very well. Fumbled intersections just
wasn't a great game for me But we still came down
to the last few plays And right before I threw the
touchdown through Dwight Clark, I missed Freddy Solomon who
was one of our otherwise He is wide open in the end zone. And I overthrow him by like three feet. – Oh, my God (chuckling)
– And I knew,
I'm sending going oh, God I
might just lost this game, And next thing, We get a little play and
Dwight makes a big play And those are probably two of the biggest. – Why are comebacks so hard And why do you think most
people can't manage to do it? And how are you able to do it so often? – I think if you find a
lot of the successful guys, No matter what sport it is, They kind of relish being
in the extra pressure. I don't know whether it
makes you focus more, But like if you look at those
games that you come back from, Most of the time, you're the
reason that they were behind. So you gotta find your way,
find a way to get down in it And I actually enjoyed it. I mean, it was the most fun
because as a quarterback, You're gonna throw the ball every down. We went against the Cowboys, we didn't, We actually ran a ball,
a lot of that last drive. But when for the most parts, That's the fun part of the game For a quarterback right there. They want to throw it well, And the game today you see, Everybody's throwing it a
lot more times than normal And a lot more yards,
a lot more touchdowns, But natural progression of
the game as it moves forward. But yeah, you just, I
think you hate to lose More than you like to win. There's, when you win it's okay, That's what expected of me. That's what I'm, I thought
we're gonna win anyway. So, but that loss kind
of gets down deep inside, I think, more than anything.
– Yeah, well, your other
nickname is Joe Cool And sitting here talking to you, It's clear why you're super chill. You have this calmness about you That I think is very unique, But I wonder, did you
really never get nervous? Like were you always super cool Or did you sometimes get nervous Or did you no doubt creep in
when you were playing games? – I don't think doubt creeped in, But I think nerves are part of
the game, a part of anything, But because of my, How well I thought I was prepared And those nerves were a
lot smaller than most, I mean, I always explained
to a lot of the kids When I'm talking to the kids, I think one of the best examples is, Okay, you're going to take a
test, whether it's high school, College, whatever it might be, How nervous are you when
you're not prepared? You know you're not prepared Compared to, you've done all
the work, you ready to go You walk in there with confidence. Yeah, there's a little bit of butterflies, But for the most part, Nowhere near what the other thing does And people think about that a lot more When you're not prepared And you get back in the two minute drills And two-minute offense. Every week we practiced
against our own defense, Which was usually if it
wasn't the top defense In the league, it was one of
the top three all the time. So, we're going again,
they know all our audibles,
They know everything, So they make it extra hard on you And when you get in the
game, it's just second nature And we had a lot of great players around. – Yeah well that's great
advice to your kids And I think to anyone in
any industry and yeah, It makes a lot of sense. So I read somewhere that before games, You didn't eat anything, is that true? – Yeah, that's what happens
when you read too much, right? I read somewhere that, You perform better on
a semi empty stomach. So what I would do is
I'd go to pre-game meal And even if it was in the morning And like one of the Super Bowls at night, And I almost passed out on the field, Right in the last drive and
where we went down to win The Super Bowl against Cincinnati. Everything got fuzzy. – Oh my gosh. – It had to be because of that, Because I would go in and
I eat like a little piece. You had just about everything you wanted. There was pastas, there was stakes, There was normal breakfast
things for pregame And I just would grab a
little piece of like a filet And just to keep my stomach working, But not completely full Because I read that you perform better On a semi empty stomach And then I would take a
snicker bar into for halftime. – Wow, that's awesome. Do you think that's changed? I mean, one of the things,
It seems like, Over the past 20 to 30
years in many sports, When you look back I feel
like athletes were in charge Of their own diets a lot
more and has that changed? Like, is it much more regimented now, With your counterparts,
your modern counterparts, Where someone's kind of a
nutritionist is telling them You have to eat this and
you have to eat that. – Well, you don't have to eat it, But it's readily available
when we were playing, We didn't, I mean, all these
places now they all have, Full blown kitchens and cooks And they got menus that go from The worst stuff you can
imagine probably to eat meal, A lot of good stuff and
wouldn't let the order out And try to get it to them
to bring the sandwiches Or whatever we decided we're gonna have. But first you had to find
someone that would deliver it. 'Cause you never had time
to run out and get it, Or you had to bring it yourself. So I think they're doing a
better job with nutrition, But still I don't think it's
always about what you eat. It's a lot of times I think, People talk about the
pastas and the carb loading Before you go out, because
it helps you burn calories, Gives you something to burn And there's all kinds of studies, But you can go get away on the studies. It go both ways, So I would say, the thing
that you should do the most Is just, if you're eating
a great diet, stay on it. If you're eating, whatever, As soon as you start changing it, Things change inside of you too,
So why would I change my diet, Game or throughout the week when That's not how I would normally eat, But it's always great to eat better And my wife keeps me on track As much what that means to her. (Prerna laughs) – So I recently watched a documentary About the Ram's head coach, Sean McVay, Who was the youngest coach in NFL history And he reportedly has
a photographic memory Where he can remember
every play he's ever seen And this kind of blew my
mind and I was wondering, As a quarterback, is
that also true for you? And do you still remember old plays? And can you kind of like run through, If you do remember, Is there one you can
kind of take us through. – And you remember certain plays, I mean, there are guys on, I think Randy Cross was one
of those guys that could, He could run through a whole game almost. He was a quarterback. I was always like, that's
over with gone done, Forget it, move on, I'm
going forward, good or bad, Learn from what happened and go. And we had so much memorization, For studying for the
game, for my playbook, That it was hard to even fathom, Like I'm sitting there going, Okay, I can remember four
or five plays in the game. Usually they were bad. But there were times where
obviously the big ones stick out, But the game that sticks out the most
Was we played Philly and Philly And Buddy Ryan was there with it, And they had a huge defensive line that, They just said no one could, We couldn't keep up with them Because we weren't physical enough And the first series I throw
like 70 yard touchdown, The Jerry Rice and I'm
sitting there going well, It's gonna be easier than I thought. And then from that point on, I picked myself up off the
ground more times than ever. (Prerna laughs) (Joe clears throat) Came down to the fourth quarter, We scored I think three
touchdowns in the fourth quarter And the last play, the last session down, We just needed a first down
and we could run the clock out And we ran a little
route with the half back. You got to go out and look around And wherever you found the hole sit down And he was wide open and I threw a pass, I threw a long pass to Jerry Rice And you see the head coach go Like that like what in
the hell are you doing? And then the next and Jerry
catches it for a touchdown And then when I walked
over there, he said, You're lucky here, that was complete. (both laughing) There was no luck there, coach. (both laughing) – All right, so for many, many years Throughout my entire childhood,
as long as I can remember, You were universally considered The greatest quarterback
of all time football's GOAT
And then came Tom Brady. You have said publicly that you agree That Tom is the new GOAT. When did you admit that to
yourself and was it hard? – No, I never thought, You don't think of yourself
in that kind of light And you don't put yourself there. I had a great career. Could I played longer? Probably. I had so many more injuries
and the game so different than, Where he is now. They don't get hit and
they get close to them. They get a flag and it's
different for a quarterback. So can you keep playing as
long as he stays healthy His arm and that is his brain
won't go away for awhile. But the difference is, I mean
I've had 27 surgeries now, A new shoulder, new knee,
a five level neck fusion, Another single level neck, four backs. I mean it's, The things they were able
to do to you back then, Weren't as bad as the
things they were able to do To the guys about the same
distance before I played, They used to just be
down on how these guys Made it to five or six years. But I think yeah, I mean it wasn't easy. I mean, it wasn't hard to say yes, Because I mean, obviously
it's throwing up numbers. All those guys were throwing up numbers. The thing is like the guys
I'd like to see play today, Are Dan Marino playing in today's world Where he knew he wasn't
going to get smacked And that was the difference, He is like there's a
guy three feet from me
And I know I have to throw the ball And I have to throw it accurately And I know he's going to
like plant me in the ground. That was a differentiator
between quarterbacks. Now that guy can't even touch you. – Yeah. – It's a big difference
in your mindset that I mean I can just stand in here if I want I'm safe in the pocket. – Do you think touching on
that topic a little bit, Do you think that shift in the, What's considered okay in football, Is a good shift in general And do you feel like it's gonna continue? I know that there has been
some controversy of late Around just concussions and
what it does to players. Like what's your opinion about that? – Well, I think the shift
there is for the quarterback Was good because when you look at it, We are the only player
who's standing still, Getting hit by someone who
outweighs you by 150 pounds And it's not the hit, you
can hit the quarterback. I think you should hit the
quarterback all you want Just don't compress them in the ground. They should be able to
play the game exactly Like the rest of everyone, But where players get hurt,
where quarterbacks get hurt And those are guys originally, They're making the
probably the biggest salary And the team owners say, no,
no, no, we gotta fix this. That's why you see that. But if you just hit me, yeah,
I'm gonna, I'll get back up. I may have to go to the
sideline for a play, But I'll come back, but
I'm not gonna get hurt.
We played the giants and the Super Bowl In the championship game, Going to win our third Super Bowl in a row And I get hit and he
compresses me in the ground And he has a hold of my hand And as we hit and he compresses,
he pulls back on my hand. My chest hurts so bad, I didn't even know my hand was broken. – Wow. – And so those are the things you don't, That they're cutting out of the game And you take all those out And I don't get concussions Because I don't take the hits That got me, those concussions And I could have played longer at 38, But I started looking at all my injuries. I had four kids, and I wanna be able to, I still can't, even though
that, I thought I could, I should've played another year or two, Since it's surgeries came anyway. But you take a lot of that away And a lot of guys can play longer. I mean, Aaron Rogers
couldn't do the same thing Unless he just had enough, But those guys are gonna
play for a long time. – Yeah. Well, on the topic of retirement, Kind of switching to
another sport for a minute, We're at this very interesting
point in tennis history Where three of the sports GOATs, Roger Fetter, Rafael
Nadal and Serena Williams Are all nearing retirement
at the same time, Putting yourself back in their shoes.
You were 38 when you retired, So young you have the rest
of your life ahead of you. You've lived your entire
life doing this thing That you love, you're world famous for it. You're literally the best
ever at this thing that you do And you suddenly have to stop. How do you deal with that transition, Emotionally and psychologically, And find a way to go live a life That's full of joy and meaning When you can no longer play football? (Joe clears throat) – Well, I think a couple
of things are different From tennis to the NFL And most of the guys who
retired from the NFL, Struggle to walk or do anything, There was no pickup game of football, You can go play, all right? First of all, you struggled physically, Tennis, yeah, you can go away And then you can go do exhibitions. You can do all these things that give, You can't do that in the NFL. What's a lines man gonna do? Where's he gonna go? Or a line back they go into coaching And coaching was never one of those things I set high in my life. I'm a doer, most of those guys doers, Or a lot of them aren't, But most of them are
doers or they want to do. And so the first few years, for me, It was hard to watch even watch. And then for tennis,
I'm not sure how those guys feel, But they play a lot more
matches than we did. They play year round all
over the world and travel A lot different. So that gets kind of exhausting. But when they want to jump
back in and do some things that Have some fun with it and they can do it, Like the guy calls me and
the other day and says, Can you throw 100 passes? I go, what? He goes, can you throw
100 passes for charity? I'm like, I haven't picked up a football And since I got a new shoulder
three or four years ago, And then I go, let me, I don't know, I better, let me see what I can do. So it's a little bit different, I think, There's not a lot of injury, Yeah they get a pulled
hamstring or a sprained ankle Or hurt his shoulder or something Or an elbow here and there. But for the most part, They don't have the same
physical part of the game And they're able to go back and do things. So it may be a little bit easier. It will be hard getting away
from the competition part of it 'cause I mean that's what we all do it, It's the competition, It's competing and having
that joy of victory And that terrible feeling of defeat. – Yeah, well, how have
you filled that gap? How do you spend your time
today and what brings you joy? – I have two granddaughters, And my kids are all close around And work with our older
son works in the fund.
I started a venture fund. Actually I started in fund of funds Right after I first retired, I really wasn't ready for a job And Ronnie Lott and Harris Barton, Obviously two guys I played with, We leveraged ourselves and our friendships To get into top tier venture funds As a fund of funds, Sequoia,
Kleiner, Accel Greylock, All these eventually grew it In the leveraged buyout
hedge in real estate. Someone made a crazy offer
during the bubble in my house, Sold it, moved to the wine country, Was driving back and forth from Calistoga, Which is two hours to
Woodside road without traffic, Some days it would pour and I just said, I mean my kids are playing
sports, I want to be there And I stepped away and
connected with Ron Conway. I'm one of the top Angel
investors here in the valley And he started taking myself
and my older son Nathaniel To Y-Combinator And so we started doing little
investments here and there And then he talked me into starting fund. So that's, what's keeping me going In most of my day, Spend time with portfolio companies And doing things on this end
and we have three partners, My son and two other young
guys who went through, Y-Combinator, both one
sold his company to Google, The other sold his company to IBM And his company actually
started IBM's cloud service. He's got too many of those
letters after his name, He's got a PhD in
applied particle physics, But he did go to Michigan state,
so I gave him a hard time.
But yeah that keeps me going, We're always looking at companies And noise dealing with
our portfolio companies And probably a lot more
work than I was already. I'd keep telling my wife, I need to retire from
retirement 'cause retirement. (Prerna chuckles) – Awesome, very cool. And so what are some of
your favorite companies In your portfolio? – Oh(clears throat) I
can't pick any favorites. We have some fun things, We do everything from marketplaces, Simple marketplaces to
satellites in the sky, Defense companies. – Wow. – We have GIT labs just announced That they're gonna go public And that will be our first
fund is doing pretty well. We have 13 or 14 unicorns
and a little $28 million fund And now GIT labs is gonna be public And we already had one company
get bought by John Deere And so it's fun watching, I mean, we have robotics we have, yeah. I mean, we have companies
landing drones from Battleship to battleship And it's pretty, pretty interesting. – Very cool, awesome. Great, all right. So we're at our final questions. It's our rapid fire
heroes journey questions. We have four questions. – Okay. – All right, question one.
What's your favorite book about a hero? It can be fiction or nonfiction. – I keep wanting to start
reading about other people, But other people remind me of real life. So I'm not, I try to, And everybody tells me about You should read so-and-so's
book and so-and-so, My kids and my son-in-law
they're reading books about, About the guy who coached
with Michael Jordan in Chicago And his book And then some, its just all
over the map on these people. But I read for enjoyment,
just like I watch movies. I don't wanna watch somebody's story about Not about their life,
cause that part's fun, But about a movie that is sort of About watching people
go through everyday life And the trials and tribulations, I go, Why didn't I want to watch that? I see that every day, I wanna be entertained. I need to start getting more
into books about people, Individuals that was a long short, I guess that's not rapid fire, but. – That's all right I love that Yeah, I agree actually. (Prerna Laughs) All right, well, what's
your favorite movie or book, That's entertaining about anything. – Right now I'm reading
something that would never read. It's called, "The Tales of the Alhambra." It's just about a guy's journey across Spain in the 1800s. The people he comes across, the bandits, Good people up and down.
So that's kind of what
I'm reading right now. – That's sound awesome. – I'm gonna read though. This is just pretty much what I just said, I don't read but my
wife talked me into it. But it's been pretty good. The letters are big enough so
I can read without glasses. (Prerna laughs) – Awesome, all right question
two, what's your kryptonite? – Pizza. (Prerna laughs) – Okay, well, that's a good
segue into question three, What's your super food. – Well I would say my kryptonite
really is Whoopie pies, So that's the bad part,
we can't let it go, There's a place in New York. My buddy keeps sending them to me. I keep don't send me anymore. Then this little deli makes and they, But I super food is probably
I'll put pizza on that level. I love pizza. – I love that, me too awesome, all right And the last question is
what's your secret weapon? – My secret weapon is
somebody named Jennifer Who sleeps next to me,
my wife, she is best, Has been the best for me, And just has a great demeanor And a great outlook on life and tries. I sometimes try to hide, From being in public and she's gonna just, You just got to quit worrying about it And don't worry about other people And it's hard to know
you wanna be with her And I wanna be with my
group friends or family
Whoever's we're out with And but she has the best outlook on life And the kids, They'll tell you when they have an issue, They don't call me, they call Jennifer. – That's the best answer
we've gotten, awesome. Joe Montana, thank you
so much for your time. It's such an honor and
pleasure to speak with you, And I really appreciate it. – My pleasure thank you. (upbeat music)
