Steve Young
Success is really about expertise.Collection: Success
I've played more golf with Joe Montana and Steve Bono than I've played with anyone else. We've played a ton of golf. I always tell people; my relationship with Joe was as good as it could be.Collection: Relationship
You become a leader in times of trouble. Leaders emerge when things don't go well. When everyone else starts pointing fingers, a leader takes responsibility.
I went to law school.
I think when you look at the quarterback position, and this mastery of the craft we talk about, it really is an advanced degree. It's like going to med school, or law school, or getting your PH.D. It really is that type of educational effort, on the field and off the field.
For me, football is a quest. Quests entail overcoming hardship, trials of adversity in the pursuit of true joy.
Playing football in San Francisco was almost a transcendental experience.
In the NFL, you're always facing an obstacle.
While it's great for a quarterback to have athletic ability, his goal is to get the ball out of his hand, orchestrate the offense and not allow his ability to stand in the way of the offense running efficiently.
Over time, I learned that how a quarterback moves the chains and leads his team to touchdowns is about as important as whether he actually does it or not.
People don't remember that Sid Gillman was my coach. He was an old crotchety guy, but he was the first one to basically say, 'You can't just run around'... I remember, he literally tied my feet up.
I have a photographic memory that enables me to visualize what everyone in the huddle is supposed to do on each of the hundreds of plays in our playbook.
You don't know the demons people deal with, and you just have no idea.
I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.
My favorite player I ever played was Reggie White. He played so ferociously. What I loved about playing against him was the millisecond you went down, he became your friend and would ask, 'How's your family?' In a way that could feel weird and awkward.
If I could have my kids be great when the lights are on, whatever the moment is, to be accountable and then fix it, they're going to be fine.
Most young quarterbacks are on the field because their team stinks.
The truth is that in the NFL, the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket. That's the job.
If you're playing for 10 or 15 years, you can't every week run six option plays. It can be around. It can be a part of the game, but sooner or later you've got to deliver the ball from the pocket. That's the game. Now, if the game changes, and it's proven a championship can be won from the pistol spread, then I'm wrong.
Scrambling, when no one's around, getting down, getting out of bounds, taking a glancing blow, those are all fine. You can do that all day long.
The pistol isn't going to go away, but the job in the long run is going to be to deliver the ball from the pocket.
The scary thing is I took 12 years of French, and I can barely say, 'My name is... ' And that's not because of the concussions.
I don't regret any of the places I went in football. Everything gave me an experience or memories that I'll have forever. We had more success in San Francisco, but it was a great time everywhere. I always had fun.
You have to take certain truths. One truth is that to have championship success in the NFL you have to learn to deliver the ball from the pocket.
So the truth is, if there's a lesson to be learned from mobile quarterbacks, it is deliver the ball from the pocket, which demands mastery of the data that is involved working in the pocket, which is, 'I know everything about everything.'
If you exhaust every play out of the pocket, what happens is you find more opportunities.
There's a negative effect when you run around without exhausting everything that happens with the play call.
It's so exhausting in the pocket taking shots when you know I can go. I don't want to take that shot and maybe make a bigger play. To dedicate and discipline your mind that 'I have to find a way, that's the only way I can learn... ' That's the challenge.
I can't imagine as a rookie actually playing good football. I went through it.
There's some glory years, where if you play long enough and you've figured the game out, and physically you're still healthy enough, there are some years in there where you can really be productive. And those are fun years.
I think Tom Coughlin is an amazing motivator. When you look at his personality, you say, 'Oh, I don't know about that.' But there's some ability he has to laser-focus a football team when it's most important. He seems to be a real valuable asset, kind of Knute Rocke almost.
Most people have an off switch and they choose when to go all out.
When you play quarterback in San Francisco, not much goes under the radar.
I'm willing to share my experiences with any young quarterback.
My biggest problem when I was younger was trying to balance my ability with what the team needed me to do to officially run the offense.
When I played for the 49ers, we loved to see man-to-man defense. I could get the ball quickly to the receivers.
The best West Coast coaching job I've seen was when Mike Shanahan left the 49ers, became the head coach in Denver and made it available to John Elway.
Donovan McNabb has great, fast feet and has learned to lock them in to run the Eagles' offense effectively.
If quarterbacks learned the West Coast offense in college, oh man - it would make a huge difference.
I loved the expectation that every year we were going to the Super Bowl.
I loved playing Dallas.
I loved playing Green Bay.
My dad's an old football player.
To play 18 years as a pro and have a great college career, it's awesome.
BYU I think had a philosophy of nameless, faceless athletes for the greater good of BYU which is fine. We all did our thing and we're grateful for it.
I don't want to look like I'm money-hungry.
My wife hates football, and my kids don't really care.
I've put football behind me.
I never asked to be the highest paid player in sports.
I had worked hard my entire career to establish myself as a leader. But I wasn't a leader until I was perceived as one.