NFL Legend Joe Montana to Visit Beijing in November

Four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Montana will be making his first visit to China in November, with a special evening event planned in Beijing at the Kerry Hotel for November 18, the NFL announced Tuesday.

Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl victories in the 1980s, later ending his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. Montana, who has the best name ever for an American sports star, was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2000.

Prior to Beijing, Montana will visit Shanghai and then be a guest of honor at the University Bowl V in Guangzhou.

“This will be my first trip to China, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Seeing what the NFL is doing to lay the foundation and how the international fan base for the league has grown in a relatively short amount of time, I am excited to visit and see how the sport is developing there,” Montana said in a statement.

The NFL has made a concerted push in China this season. Aside from its NFL Home Field program, taking place in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou this year, and designed to get more people in China playing NFL football, it tried a different kind of soft power: sending the New England Patriots Cheerleaders on their seventh visit to Beijing in recent years.

“An Evening with Joe Montana” will take place at the Kerry Hotel on Monday, November 18, from 7-9pm. Stay with the Beijinger for full details on how you can meet this legend of the gridiron.

Photo: Halestormsports.com/Manny Rubio