The red jersey worn by legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana in Super Bowl XIX and Super Bowl XXIII has been sold for $1.212 million at an auction organized by Goldin Co. on Wednesday. This made it the priciest football jersey sold at an auction, topping the $480,000 that one collector paid for Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey back in 2022.
During the same auction, Goldin also sold Montana’s Super Bowl XXIV road jersey, for which an unnamed buyer paid $720,000.
The high price that the home jersey fetched doesn’t come as a surprise considering its unique story. Montana first wore the jersey during Super Bowl XIX, when he helped the 49ers get a
38-16 win over the Miami Dolphins. He brought the jersey home and stored it in a scrapbook.
Four years later, on the morning of Super Bowl XXIII, in which San Francisco played the Cincinnati Bengals, Montana’s wife decided to get the jersey out and suggested he wears it once again. The Hall of Famer decided to listen to his wife, and it ended up being the jersey in which he orchestrated “The Drive, “a 92-yard game-winning drive that sealed the 20-16 win for the 49ers.
“It’s only right that the two greatest quarterbacks of all-time are still trading off records, even in retirement,” said Goldin Co. founder Ken Goldin. “Montana was already in rarefied air with four championship rings and three Super Bowl MVPs — [and] with the record-breaking sale of his Super Bowl XXIII jersey, Montana has surpassed Tom Brady on top of that mountain.”
