Montana: Don’t Bet That 49ers Will Throw Only Short on Sunday

When they compare the receivers in the Super Bowl, they talk about the speed of Miami’s Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, and the experience of San Francisco’s Dwight Clark and Freddie Solomon.

That would tell you that the 49ers will be throwing shorter passes, but Joe Montana wouldn’t advise you to bet on it.

“No one thinks Freddie is fast, but I’ll tell you something. He and Skeets are pretty close when it comes to speed,” Montana said. “And people think Dwight is slow. He’s not, either.”

Skeets is Renaldo Nehemiah, the 49ers’ backup receiver who says, “People don’t know how fast Freddie is because they haven’t seen him go deep too much. I think we have one of the fastest groups of wide receivers in the league.”

Nobody, of course, doubts Nehemiah’s speed. He still holds the world record in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Says 49er running back Wendell Tyler of Sunday’s game: “We’ll have the hometown advantage. We’ll have the fans behind us.”

The 49ers are only the second team to play a Super Bowl game in their hometown. The other was the Rams in the 1980 game against Pittsburgh at the Rose Bowl. The Rams lost, 31-19.

At running back for the Rams was Wendell Tyler.

Quiz Time: Who coached the Rams to their first NFL title? (Answer below.)

The classified sections of San Francisco newspapers are clogged with requests to buy or sell Super Bowl tickets, with some people offering trades.

One person wanted to exchange one week at a luxury cabin at Lake Tahoe and another week in a condominium in Hawaii for four tickets. Other offers included a 30-foot Trimaran sailboat, an IBM computer, a 24K gold necklace, a Salvador Dali lithograph and 12 new Cabbage Patch Kids.

Top asking price: $1,250 for a 50-yard seat.

Eddie LeBaron, at 5-7, played quarterback in the National Football League, so naturally he thinks Doug Flutie can make it.

LeBaron, Atlanta Falcons vice president, told Frank Luksa of the Dallas Times Herald: “I’ve seen a lot of 6-3 guys who can’t play in this league. I don’t think being 5-9 is that much of a disadvantage as long as he can move and throw.

“I played against the Rams when they had Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen, Deacon Jones and Rosey Grier. They were a lot taller than the 49ers defensive line today.”

He’s right, they were taller, although not a lot. Lundy was listed at 6-7, the others at 6-5. On San Francisco’s front three, the heights are 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5.

Quiz Answer: Adam Walsh. Walsh, who died Saturday in Brunswick, Me., at the age of 83, coached the Cleveland Rams to the title in 1945. The following year the Rams moved to Los Angeles. After a 6-4-1 season in 1946, Walsh was replaced by Bob Snyder.

In the 1945 title game, Bob Waterfield, rookie quarterback from UCLA, led the Rams to a 15-14 win over the Washington Redskins, quarterbacked by Sammy Baugh. The Rams got a safety when Baugh hit the goal post throwing out of his end zone. Waterfield kicked the winning extra point.

Quotebook Miami linebacker Bob Brudzinski, on San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana: “That guy is something else. From what we’ve seen, he’s the second best. We play the best every day in practice.”