https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35604915/49ers-legend-joe-montana-reflects-legacy-ahead-super-bowl

He regrets not learning Italian as a child when he moved around the ankles and knees of his relatives who parlo'd and prego'd away in the kitchen, a place where flour and water became dough. A few times as an adult he's tried to learn. Taken classes. Bought Rosetta Stone. It just never stuck. Even as he reaches an age where learning new things can hang just out of reach, he remains happiest when he's curious and engaged. It's clear his kitchen in San Francisco is a place where he engages with his ancestors. The old ways matter to him. Once during a commercial shoot at Ellis Island he slipped away to find his family's records. I can picture him in those archives, a public figure on the outside but inside still the boy trying to understand where he came from, why he wanted what he wanted, why he feared what he feared.

Yesterday she and Joe drove around the city with the windows down. They got to a stoplight and the person a lane over hurriedly rolled his window down, too. He had a few seconds' audience with Joe Montana. "Thank you for the great childhood," the man said.