Montana v. San Jose Mercury News, Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Cottle, J.
On January 22, 1989, San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Joe Montana led his team to a 20-16 come-from-behind victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. The following day, the San Jose Mercury News (SJMN) ran a front page story chronicling the 49’ers’ feat and depicting four players, including Montana, celebrating on the field. The next year, the 49’ers were even more impressive in Super Bowl XXIV, sweeping past the Denver Broncos to a 55-10 win. Again, SJMN featured the 49’ers’ accomplishment the next day in its front page story. The accompanying front page photograph showed Joe Montana “flying high in celebration with Guy McIntyre after a third-quarter touchdown pass to John Taylor.”
The 1990 Super Bowl victory gave the 49’ers an unparalleled four championships in the 1980 to 1990 decade. To celebrate this accomplishment, SJMN issued a special “Souvenir Section” in its Sunday, February 4, 1990, edition, devoted exclusively to the 49’ers, a “team of destiny.” The souvenir section, entitled “Trophy Hunters,” carried an artist’s rendition of Montana on the front page.
Each of these newspaper pages was reproduced in poster form within two weeks of its…