Max Montoya Jr. (born May 12, 1956) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

who played 16 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Early life

Montoya who is of Mexican–American descent, attended La Puente High School in

La Puente, California La Puente (Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The original inhabitants of the ...

. He was unable to play football or basketball his senior season due to a heart murmur.

College career

Montoya was cleared to play football again and began his college football career playing for Mt. San Antonio College ( Mt. SAC), a community college in

Walnut, California Walnut is a city in the eastern part of Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 29,172, and in 2019 the population was estimated at 29,685. The greater Walnut Valley is located betw ...

. He did not start as a freshman, but after an outstanding sophomore season, he earned a football scholarship to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, where he would play for head coach

Terry Donahue Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...

. After redshirting for a year, Montoya was a starter in 1977 as the Bruins posted a 7-4 record. In 1978, he was again a starter, earning All Pac-10 honors. The Bruins in 1978 went 8-3-1, ended the season in both the AP and

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Top 20 rankings and played to a 10-10 tie against

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in the 1978

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

Professional career

Montoya was drafted in the 7th round (168th overall) of the

1979 NFL Draft The 1979 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astori ...

. Montoya was a four-time

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

guard who played in two Super Bowls with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played 11 seasons for the Bengals, from 1979 to 1989, becoming a starter in his second season. He then played five seasons for the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

, starting in all but his final season.

Personal life

After retiring from the NFL, Montoya invested in a restaurant franchise of Cincinnati-based

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

East Coast Subs and eventually owned four in northern Kentucky. He is also a founder and silent partner of Montoya's Restaurant in

Fort Mitchell, Kentucky Fort Mitchell is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,702 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. History Fort Mitchell was the site of one of seven Civil War fortifi ...

. He also spent five years helping coach the Beechwood High School football team (including son Matthew, now a multimedia freelancer) in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. His daughter, Alison Montoya (a twin of Matthew), is a general assignment reporter and anchor for Cincinnati

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate WXIX after previously working for

WLWT WLWT (channel 5) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the ...

. Montoya is now semi-retired and lives with his wife, Patty, on a farm in

Hebron, Kentucky Hebron () is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Boone County, Kentucky, United States. The city is named after the biblical city of Hebron. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 5,929. It is home to the Cinc ...

, where he raises horses.

References

External links

* https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MontMa00.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Montoya, Max American football offensive guards Players of American football from California 1956 births Living people American sportspeople of Mexican descent UCLA Bruins football players Cincinnati Bengals players Los Angeles Raiders players American Conference Pro Bowl players People from La Puente, California Sportspeople from Montebello, California