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"The man I know isn't a ranter or a raver—he's not even a talker. He's very proud of his successes, but he doesn't care about fame and fortune. He really doesn't. He's very easy to live with—I'm the maniac. I liven him up; he calms me down. Joe doesn't say a lot, but whatever he does say is interesting, thoughtful. He's funny—he makes me laugh. Still, I sometimes think that if he played football the way he conducts his life—well, he just wouldn't be a football player. He's not a leader. 'What makes you so different out there?' I've asked him. He stutters and stammers around and says: 'I don't know.' "
It is getting more difficult for her to make cheerful allowances for the fans who pursue Joe and track him even to their home. In the storm the week of the Cowboy game, several large trees on their property were uprooted and turned on their sides. Joe mourned the loss, "almost like they were animals," as Cass said. They struck her as symbols: the Montanas' privacy is being cleared away. "The man is going to be a household word," she says almost regretfully. "There's no stopping him now. We had to make some security arrangements the other day." They are gaining the Super Bowl and losing the wilderness. —ByTomCallahan
* Joe's name is real and comes from Northern Italy where it was Montani. The Western echo in the Americanized version is also real; he is 1/64 Sioux.