With Super Bowl 50 at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium on Sunday, a look at top moments and performances by Bay Area players on the game's biggest stage.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- It's hard to choose which of Joe Montana's Super Bowl showcases was his best. After all, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback did win three MVP awards among his four rings.
There was his steady 100.0 passer rating in completing 14 of 22 passes for 157 yards and a TD against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.
There was also his three-TD, 331-yard passing performance against the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX.
And there was his two-TD, 357-yard passing game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.
But let's go with his clinical dissection of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV, Joe Cool at the height of his powers with a passer rating of 147.6 after throwing for 297 yards and five TDs in completing 22 of 29 passes in a 55-10 rout of the Denver Broncos.
It was enough for the performance to be ranked No. 2 in our poll of top Super Bowl moments by a Bay Area player.
Sure, Montana would win three more playoff games in his career – he would also lose three more times in the postseason. But it was the final Super Bowl Montana, who threw 11 TD passes without being intercepted on Super Sunday, would win in his Hall of Fame career.
Former Niners owner Eddie DeBartolo asked Montana how he got over the game following retirement in the parade for Montana's enshrinement into Canton.
"He turned to me and said, 'You know, there's only one way,'" DeBartolo recalled Montana telling him. "'You've just got to put football in your rearview mirror and life will take care of itself after that.'"
Montana certainly took care of the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV.
No. 3: Marcus Allen running with the night