Joe Montana Football was released in 1990 for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive. This game was meant to be the game to put the Genesis on the map, and was released in time for the holiday season.

It was just a recolor of EA's John Madden Football, but was made to feel different enough so people would buy both. The deal with Montana was secured by Michael Katz, former president of Sega of America, but was fired and replaced by Tom Kalinske before the project could get off the ground. Kalinske had a meeting with EA's Trip Hawkins to discuss the game, and also about how EA had reverse engineered the Genesis to start making their own cartridges. The outcome of this was that Joe Montana Football would come out, and EA would pay for the cartridges.

Joe Montana Football is basically exactly like John Madden Football, except for the fact that it only had 16 teams, and Madden had 24. The game is basically like most football games at the time, with slightly simplified rules of American Football. It has three modes, Normal Game, Two-Minute Drill, and Sega Bowl. The player also has the option to turn penalties on or off.