Two Hall of Famers, One Job: The Montana-Young Controversy and the Trade That Split the Bay

The 49ers once had two of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived on the same roster. Then they did the unthinkable and traded one of them away. This is how the most agonizing quarterback controversy in NFL history actually happened.

Think about how absurd the situation actually was. The San Francisco 49ers, at one point in the early 1990s, had two future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks standing on the same sideline, wearing the same uniform, competing for the same single job. Joe Montana, the four-time Super Bowl champion, the coldest closer the sport had ever produced, the man who authored The Catch drive and the John Candy game. And Steve Young, a left-handed force of nature who would go on to win two MVPs and a Super Bowl of his own. Two of the greatest to ever play the position, and only one football to throw. There has never been a quarterback room like it, and there may never be one again.

And here is the part that still stops people cold decades later. The 49ers looked at that impossible embarrassment of riches and made a choice. They kept Steve Young, and they traded Joe Montana away.

How you end up with two of them

The whole thing started, as these things often do, with a bet on the future made while the present was still winning championships. Montana was the franchise, the man who had turned Bill Walsh's system into four Lombardi trophies and made San Francisco the team of the 1980s. But by the end of that decade the front office understood something uncomfortable. Montana was getting older, and the body that had absorbed a decade of hits was starting to send warning signs. So in 1987 they traded for Steve Young, a former USFL star buried on the Tampa Bay depth chart, and stashed one of the most talented quarterbacks in football on the bench behind a living legend.

For a few years it was an insurance policy that mostly gathered dust. Young waited. He was, by any measure, far too good to be a backup, and everyone in the building knew it. But you do not bench Joe Montana while he is still Joe Montana. So the greatest understudy in NFL history stood on the sideline and waited for a door that only injury could open.

The injury that changed everything

That door opened in 1991. Montana hurt his elbow, a serious injury that would keep him off the field for the better part of two seasons. Young finally got his chance to play, and the 49ers, dealing with their own injuries to Young along the way, stumbled to a 10-6 record and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1982. On the surface it looked like the team had taken a step back without Montana. Underneath, something more important was happening. Steve Young was proving he belonged.

Then came 1992, and there was no more debating it. With Montana's elbow still keeping him sidelined for nearly the entire year, Young seized the job and did not just hold it, he detonated. He led the 49ers to a 14-2 record, the best in football, and won the NFL MVP award. The backup was now, unquestionably, one of the two or three best players in the league. And lurking in the background, finally healthy again, was the greatest quarterback of his generation, waiting to take his job back.

The controversy that split a locker room and a fan base

This is where it turned into one of the most divisive sagas the sport has ever seen. Montana, recovered and ready, wanted his job back, and he had four rings that said he had earned the right to compete for it. Young had a 14-2 season and an MVP that said the job was now rightfully his. Both arguments were airtight. That is what made it impossible. Montana himself has never softened on how he felt, saying flatly years later, "I'm better than he is." He did not believe he was finished, and he did not think he should have to hand the keys to anyone.

The locker room reportedly split. So did the fan base, so did talk radio, so did families around the Bay Area. Were you a Montana loyalist, riding with the man who had delivered four championships and refused to give up the throne? Or did you believe in Young, the new MVP who had earned the present and the future while Montana was hurt? There was no neutral ground. Coach George Seifert eventually had to make the call no coach ever wants to make, choosing between two Hall of Famers, and he made it official: Steve Young would be the starter.

The trade nobody thought they would ever see

Once that decision was made, the ending was really only a matter of time. The 49ers made it clear to Montana that he would not even get a chance to compete for the job in training camp. For a competitor like Montana, that was untenable. He did not want to be a backup, and he did not want the politics and the locker room tension spilling out onto the field every Sunday. So the request came, and before the 1993 season the 49ers traded Joe Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Sit with that for a second. San Francisco traded away Joe Montana, arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of the game, while he was still good enough to lead Kansas City to the AFC Championship Game. They traded him not because he had declined into nothing, but because the man behind him was also a Hall of Famer, and you can only play one. It remains one of the most stunning organizational decisions in NFL history, the kind of thing that only becomes possible when you are absurdly, ridiculously blessed at the most important position in sports.

Why they were right, even though it hurt

Here is the hardest truth of the whole saga. The 49ers made the correct call. As painful as it was to watch Montana finish his career in Chiefs red, keeping Young was the right football decision, and the results proved it. Young went on to win the 1994 MVP and then torched the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX, throwing a record six touchdown passes and finally, fully, stepping out of Montana's enormous shadow. The 49ers did not fall off after trading a legend. They won another title. That almost never happens.

That is what makes this story so singular. Most quarterback controversies are arguments between a good option and a worse one. This was an argument between two of the greatest players who have ever lived, and the organization was good enough, and cold enough, to pick one and move on from the other. It broke hearts across the Bay Area. It also worked. And it stands, all these years later, as the ultimate testament to just how deep the 49ers dynasty ran, a team so loaded at quarterback that it could trade away Joe Montana and keep right on winning.

• 198749ers trade for Steve Young and stash him behind Montana
• 1991Montana's elbow injury opens the door; Young takes the field
• 1992Young wins MVP, goes 14-2, and makes the job his own
• 1993Seifert names Young the starter; Montana is traded to Kansas City
• 1994Young wins MVP and Super Bowl XXIX with six TD passes

• Montana won four Super Bowls in San Francisco before the trade
• Young posted a 14-2 record and an MVP in 1992 while Montana was hurt
• Montana led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game after the deal
• Young answered with the 1994 MVP and six TD passes in Super Bowl XXIX

More 49ers history: Team of the Decade · The Catch, 1982 · History hub