The broadcast booth usually becomes the lucrative second act for quarterbacks. They often also make great analysts because of all the matters of football they can speak on. However, one legend, Joe Montana, couldn’t stomach that role for more than a single season. Now, he’s shed some light on why he quit NBC back in the day.

“Coming from the other side as a player, so many times, people are making judgments on a player, or on what happened on the field, they have no idea,” he told CNBC’s Alex Sherman. “It would be hard to judge our receivers, our quarterbacks, that played under Bill [Walsh] because our receivers had so many adjustments they could make on a hook. It just depended on the defense.

“So, as someone sitting up in the box, you have no idea what all those are, who misread who, and all that. I just didn’t like making those kinds of judgments on players. I was uncomfortable.”

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback stepped into the booth immediately after retiring and joined NBC in 1995 as a studio analyst for their pregame show. Nine games later, Montana walked away. But there are more reasons.

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Already, Montana wasn’t the most preferred analyst by the audience of the show. In fact, he was already in hot water, probably because he wouldn’t judge the players for their mistakes. And then there was another story outside of the booth.

On January 28, 1996, when the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers met in Super Bowl XXX, NBC had a pre-halftime meeting. Montana, being part of the crew, suggested an idea on how to defend the Cowboys. However, he was told the idea wasn’t good enough. But here’s how it turned into the last straw…

Just moments later, another analyst suggested the very same idea. Everyone loved it. Montana’s reaction was understandable. Then, he called his wife from his phone, and simply said:

“I quit. I’m out of here. I can’t do this,” Montana told The Post in 2021.

Montana’s sympathy comes from a decade and a half of experience. Montana played in 15 NFL seasons under center, winning four Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVPs, and two league MVPs. Diagnosing defenses and mastering playbooks, however, wasn’t the challenge. Evaluating players publicly, without knowing every adjustment or assignment, was.

On paper, it looked like the start of another long chapter. Many, like Jim Miller, had been the voice of radio for years. Troy Aikman and Tony Romo became the faces of the current analysts. However, while some dismissed him as simply not being good at commentary, behind the scenes, the struggle was more internal than technical.

Montana couldn’t separate his quarterback mindset from the analyst’s chair because he understood how layered every snap was, how one route adjustment or protection call could change everything. That perspective made it difficult for him to criticize players in a simplified, television-friendly way.

Ultimately, even with time left on his NBC contract, the quarterback who led the 49ers dynasty decided he was done.

He believes the pressure was different in his era and suggested that today’s former quarterbacks-turned-commentators operate in a more forgiving environment than he did.

Joe Montana praised Tony Romo and Troy Aikman for their broadcast roles

Back in Joe Montana’s era, color commentary was largely about explaining what had already happened. The job wasn’t centered on forecasting plays or walking viewers through pre-snap reads in real time. Today, though, top former quarterbacks are often celebrated for predicting what’s coming next.

Tony Romo, in particular, has built much of his broadcasting identity around those pre-snap breakdowns. Though he’s been on the receiving end of criticism for his commentary, Montana is all praise for him.

“I think a couple of the guys do an extremely good job,” he said. “I haven’t seen much of Tom [Brady], but I know Troy [Aikman] and Tony Romo. I think when you look at how they analyze a game, it is a little bit different. They’ll even get into the ‘Well, I’m not sure…’ When I was there, they just wanted you to be definitive, argumentative, and they didn’t care whether you were right or wrong, and I didn’t feel very good about that.”

From Montana’s perspective, today’s analysts are allowed, even encouraged, to acknowledge uncertainty and unpack the layers of a play. That subtle shift changes the tone of the booth. While Aikman controls the narrative with his in-depth knowledge as the former Cowboys quarterback, Romo has been the predictor who breaks down every game before it even happens.

It creates space for nuance rather than forced certainty. And that’s likely why, more than three decades later, despite his deep football knowledge, Montana has chosen to stay away from returning to it, even if it’s inside the booth and not on the gridiron.