Options Open for Montana : Quarterback Is Enjoying Game Too Much to Retire Now, Say Kansas City Teammates

It has been a fantastic journey, from Ringgold High in Monongahela, Pa., to Notre Dame, from Candlestick Park to Arrowhead Stadium, with four memorable stops along the way to pick up Super Bowl rings.

On Saturday, quarterback Joe Montana makes one more stop at the Coliseum to take one more shot at the Super Bowl.

If he fails, if the Raiders deny the Kansas City Chiefs a chance at postseason play in the regular-season finale, is that it?

Could this be the last time Montana puts on a football jersey, the last time anyone sees his arms raised in his trademark celebration after throwing yet another touchdown pass?

Would he dare call it quits at age 38, after 14 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and two with Kansas City, after passing for 272 touchdowns and 40,337 yards?

There have been rumors and hints and media reports that Montana is about to unhook his chin strap for the last time, but not from anyone on the Chiefs.

“I would be surprised,” said Kansas City Coach Marty Schottenheimer of a possible Montana retirement, “but it’s not something we’ve even discussed. Joe Montana likes to compete. He likes to play football. He likes to play golf. He likes to play tiddlywinks. He likes to play at anything. I think that competitive spirit is the reason he’s still playing, and I don’t think he’s lost any of that.”

Neither does teammate Derrick Thomas.

“I doubt it,” said the Kansas City linebacker when asked about the rumors of Montana’s departure from the game. “Just being around him, I doubt that this is his final campaign because it’s not something you can put down and pick up. When it’s over, it’s over, and I don’t think he’s ready to give it up yet. . . . It’s still fun to him.”

Montana was not available for comment Wednesday, but he said before the season that he would decide on his future after the season and he has stuck to that, denying a New York Daily News report earlier this month that he will retire.

“It’s ridiculous,” Montana said then. “We’re right in the middle of a race to make the playoffs. Why would I want to distract from that even if I had decided--and I haven’t?”

This much is known. Jennifer Montana, Joe’s wife, would like to see him get out now. The argument has been made that there is more to be lost than gained, that Montana has made a fortune on the field, continues to prosper through endorsements and will be more susceptible to injury as he nears 40 and has nothing to prove.

If he never throws another pass, there are those who will argue that Montana was the greatest at his position.

But those are arguments based on logic, not emotion.

“I know that it’s almost over,” Montana said recently. “The only way I can have people understand it is to (have you) pick something that you really enjoy in your life right now and, all of a sudden, you have someone come up to you and say, ‘You’re not allowed to haveit or do it for the rest of your life.’

“I think that puts it a little more into perspective. You want to make it last as long as you can.”

Montana has suffered injuries in recent years, but he has missed only two games this season, those because of a sprained foot.

“If anything, I would say probably that, overall physically, he (Montana) is more sound,” Schottenheimer said. “His arm is, frankly in my view, a bit better than it was. . . . I think that he’s in better shape than he’s ever been in.”

Still, it has been a difficult month for Montana. There was the foot injury that left people wondering if he would finish this year. There was a media report, firmly denied by Montana’s agent, Peter Johnson, that the quarterback was involved in the tax scandal involving memorabilia that has ensnared baseball’s Darryl Strawberry.

Montana seems to have put it all behind him as he comes to town for Saturday’s showdown.

If he can somehow spin that magic for one more month and get by the Raiders and whoever else the AFC playoffs throw in his path, if he can somehow make it back to the Super Bowl and find his old 49er teammates there, if he can somehow pull out one more Super Bowl triumph and beat the man who replaced him in San Francisco, Steve Young, in a dream matchup, if he can pull all that off, then there would truly be nothing left to accomplish.

Then, even he might be ready to say, “That’s enough.”