Joe Montana was the biggest star in the NFL at a much different time for how the game was played.

The rules were different.

The hits, specifically on the quarterback, were more violent, and getting destroyed after releasing the ball was the rule, not the expectation.

Today's NFL does a lot more to not only protect quarterbacks, but to favor the offense more.

Montana feels these added rules have changed the fundamentals of the position but doesn't seem to think he'd struggle in today's game.

I (Nick Shepkowski) sat down with Montana a few hours before Notre Dame took on Miami this past weekend, as he took a break from passing out Guinness to Fighting Irish fans at Corby's.

You can see the entire interview below, while a few of the highlights will get their own in-depth posts here this week.

See what the Hall of Famer had to say about the rules of the current NFL below.

On 49ers Potential Success with Today's Rules

Montana pointed not just to quarterback protection, but how you're able to defend receivers as a reason the great San Francisco 49ers teams he was a part of would still be great in today's game.

"You've got guys like Jerry Rice and John Taylor getting different releases and knowing they can't get hit," said Montana. "Quarterbacks, especially in the NFL, not being able to be hit. There's a difference at that level, right?"

For Montana, the biggest difference is the mental hurdle that came as a quarterback was knowing he was about to get drilled, but still needing to deliver a spot-on pass.

"The difference for quarterbacks was knowing who can stand here knowing a 300-pounder is going to plant me as soon as I let go of the ball and get me off-balance and compress me into the ground," Montana said.

That's much different than the world today's star quarterbacks live in, where even the least bit of contact after a ball is released is usually flagged.

Joe Montana on Modern NFL Quarterback Rules

While the rule changes have been made in the name of player safety, Montana feels that has changed the overall experience of being a quarterback at the game's highest level.

"If you know you're not going to get hit, you're able to stand in there and throw the ball knowing that guys not going to hit you," he said. "Now you watch guys and they're complaining when somebody happens to bump into them."

Montana was known for his composure in the highest-pressure situations and his accuracy. And while he wasn't exactly Randall Cunningham, he does have over 1,600 career rushing yards to his name, only adding to the physical toll the game took on his body.

What's important to realize is what Montana didn't say when he discussed this with me over a Guinness at Corby's in South Bend.

He didn't say today's quarterbacks have anything easier or that their jobs aren't incredibly hard.

Quarterbacks today play against even bigger and faster defenders than what Montana faced during his career.

He simply said things were different and seemed to think those teams from the 49ers dynasty of the 1980's would have had only more offensive success.

And perhaps, with some of these new rules, perhaps we would have all been treated to a few more seasons of Montana as a star NFL quarterback than what we wound up with.