Passing on Montana Looked Good at Time

Jim Parmer, a scout for the Chicago Bears, recalls that the club came close to selecting Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in the third round of the 1979 NFL draft.

Parmer said that then-General Manager Jim Finks vetoed the idea because the Bears already had three quarterbacks--Mike Phipps, Bob Avellini and Vince Evans.

“We liked (Montana) very much, but Jim didn’t want to create a ‘quarterback situation,’ as he called it,” Parmer said.

Instead, the Bears selected a halfback from Georgia, Willie McClendon.

“Passing on Montana is one of the biggest disappointments in the history of the Bears’ organization,” Parmer said. “He’ll go down as one of the greats of all time.”

Trivia time: What city has played host to the most Super Bowls?

Fear of failure: Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips is credited with turning the Denver Broncos around this season.

Pro Bowl safety Dennis Smith said of the 1988 season: “We all felt so terrible, but the fact was we were terrible. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t confident on the field. I’d go into games thinking I was going to accomplish all these great things, then by the second quarter I’d be saying, ‘Just don’t quit. Try not to be the one they point the finger at this week.’

“It’s a great feeling now to come off the field again and not have the offense look at you like, ‘Are you guys going to do anything?’ ”

Add Phillips: Phillips, son of NFL coach-turned-sportscaster Bum Phillips, on why he was in a bad mood Thursday: “I had to get up early to do my father’s radio show. He picked the 49ers to win.”

Lessons of history: Is 49er Coach George Seifert afraid his club is overconfident? Columnist Frank Cooney of the San Francisco Examiner reports that someone in the 49er organization ordered clippings from 1969 Baltimore newspapers that all but conceded Super Bowl III to the Colts, who were favored by 17 points over the New York Jets. The Jets won, 16-7.

“It sounds like it would be a good idea, but, really, I haven’t done anything like that,” Seifert said. “We are ignoring such things as the odds. We are concentrating on football, on the game, as we always do.”

The glasnost watch: The Reso Olympia in Leningrad, a hotel equipped with a satellite dish, will provide the first live broadcast of a Super Bowl in the Soviet Union.

The game will be shown beginning at 1 a.m. Monday on sets in guests’ rooms and the lounge. The hotel, catering to tourists, does not accept rubles.

Trivia answer: New Orleans is playing host to its seventh Super Bowl. Miami has had six.

Quotebook: Defensive back Tim McKyer, on his disputes with 49er management: “Misinterpreted, misunderstood, misquoted--you name it--I was missed.”