Steve Young Quotes

As one of the most celebrated and successful quarterbacks in the National Football League, Steve Young is considered a legendary figure in American football. During his 15-year career with the San Francisco 49ers and Tatmary Buccaneers, Young led his team to three Super Bowl victories and established himself as a passionate leader and trailblazer in the sport. His commitment to excellence, coaching philosophy, and skill as a player have made him an inspiration to generations of football players. 

Table of Contents:

1. Early Life and College Career

2. NFL Career

3. Retirement and Social Impact

4. Literary Works

5. Legacy and Honors

6. Steve Young Quotes

1. Early Life and College Career

Steve Young was born on October 11th, 1961 in Salt Lake City, Utah to parents Susan and LeGrande Young. Growing up, he was an avid athlete and dedicated himself to such sports as football, basketball, and skiing. After attending high school at Greenwich High School in Connecticut, Young was offered a full scholarship to attend Brigham Young University. While there, he achieved tremendous success as a football player and led the Brigham Cougars to a successful 1985 NCAA season. Young was a three-time all-American selection and finished his college career with a record of 11, 936 passing yards.

2. NFL Career

Young joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1985 and become the team’s starting quarterback in the 1987 season. Over the course of his 15-year career in the NFL, he led the 49ers to three Super Bowl victories and was named MVP for Super Bowl XXIX in 1995. A noted leader and innovator, Young was known for his fierce competitiveness and ability to make quick decisions on the field. During his career, he was also regarded for being an outspoken advocate for fair play, which he believed to be an integral part of the game.

3. Retirement and Social Impact

Young retired from the NFL in 1999 and immediately shifted his focus to making an impact off the field. He became a popular sports commentator and a board member of several nonprofit organizations, including the NFL Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation. Additionally, he devoted much of his time to charity initiatives throughout the United States. His public persona and passionate commitment to sportsmanship and philanthropy earned him the admiration of many.

4. Literary Works

Young has written several books about his football career and his passion for philanthropy, many of which have been critically acclaimed. His best-selling book, A Life of Faith, is a heartfelt account of his Christian faith and how it shaped his life as a professional football player. Additionally, his book Models of Excellence examines the importance of character, hard work, and perseverance in achieving one’s goals.

5. Legacy and Honors

Young’s contributions to the game of football have been acknowledged with several prestigious honors, including the NFL Alumni Player of the Year award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in 2005. In 2017, he was also recognized with a spot on the NFL’s All-Time Team and was named the 33rd-most valuable player in the league’s history. Beyond the field, Young’s dedication to charitable work and sportsmanship have earned him an esteemed place in the annals of football history.

Steve Young Quotes

“Most people have an off switch and they choose when to go all out.” – Steve Young

“There’s a negative effect when you run around without exhausting everything that happens with the play call.” – Steve Young

“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.’” – Steve Young

“No one can keep their word. Everyone’s in hurry and jumping to the next opportunity. There’s something missing.” – Steve Young

“Private equity is a science project for many, many years, and when you have a science project, it leaves the human beings as a secondary fact.” – Steve Young

“Football, no one wants to ram into people. It’s not human nature. You have to have a lot of incentive to ram into somebody to benefit others.” – Steve Young

“About 5 percent of love is romantic. The other 95 percent is something else. It’s caring for another more than yourself. It’s empathy and compassion and sacrifice. It’s setting aside your own concerns to lift someone else.” – Steve Young

“I can’t imagine as a rookie actually playing good football. I went through it.” – Steve Young

“The truth is that in the NFL, the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket. That’s the job.” – Steve Young

“I had admired Waylon [ Jennings], but I never expected to meet him and get to know him. When I finally moved to Nashville years later, one night I went to a Harlan Howard Guitar Pull thing, and there was Waylon. He started talking about how much he loved my work and how great I was, and I couldn’t even get a word in.” – Steve Young

“My dad, like any coach, has always stressed the fundamentals. He taught me responsibility, accountability, and the importance of hard work.” – Steve Young

“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” – Steve Young

“A running quarterback, to me, is safer. Because, once I got out [of the pocket], I didn’t run where there were a lot of people. I ran where there was nobody.” – Steve Young

“Everything you do in life is up to you. Part of life is realizing you have much more potential and ability than you’d ever know, but it’s up to you to face the fears and unleash that which really drives you.”- Steve Young

“I did admire the comments and the music of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. And that didn’t fly too well in the Deep South. It was not quite redneck enough.” – Steve Young

“The demands of excellent NFL quarterbacking I always said took every piece of me, emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually. It was like it just took it all, and I think that was what was so energizing about it and unreplicable.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I always felt like hanging around the pocket was trouble, but the truth is, the great players take the beatings in the pocket and expose themselves — and that is the real risk.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that’s the truth in people’s minds.” – Steve Young

“My wife hates football, and my kids don’t really care.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“Music saved my life a few times because I could play the stuff rednecks loved. They thought I was great and they wondered why I didn’t do that all the time.” – Steve Young

“I may yet move [from Nashville], and where would I move if not Texas or New Mexico? I couldn’t afford a home in California. I need to travel out of there occasionally.” – Steve Young

“I saw all that [white trash] growing up in Alabama and Georgia. I had a group of country cousins and we’d go visit them when I was a kid. They lived on a red dirt Georgia back road, in a shack, with twelve kids. Farmers. No electricity, they had a well on their back porch, but they had nothing, yet they were the happiest, freest people I’d ever met. I loved to visit them. Great sense of humor, and they kept up with all the latest music, country, rockabilly, that stuff. Great food they grew in the fields and canned. Happy people.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I loved playing Green Bay.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I’m willing to share my experiences with any young quarterback.” – Steve Young

“Most young quarterbacks are on the field because their team stinks.” – Steve Young

“In 2010, my kids came home telling these ridiculous stories about me they heard from school. I realized my kids didn’t know my story, and they were hearing it from the goofballs at school.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“To play 18 years as a pro and have a great college career, it’s awesome.” – Steve Young

“I got good grades. I played sports.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“If quarterbacks learned the West Coast offense in college, oh man – it would make a huge difference.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I will be a missionary in a remote village at some point.” – Steve Young

“The secret to teamwork is an outward mindset.” – Steve Young

“My goal–and this is kind of my own little secret–but when I get married, just to head out and finish football and, and, and be a missionary around the world. Places where – Steve Young–not that it’s big really that many places–but places where they have no idea about football.” – Steve Young

“There are a lot of guys kind of on the bubble that can either be that sort who turn into journeyman kind of guys that will find a new spot or guys that can make a claim to be in one place for a long time. You can name a lot of names this year, an unusual number. And I think that most of them will be OK.” – Steve Young

“Fundamentally, if the league is going to have a no-tolerance policy for domestic abuse, if we’re going to be a global organization that’s going to have this as a perspective, we’ve got to back it up. We can’t be backed into it with a video with more coming out. We have to make an affirmative stand on it.” – Steve Young

“Donovan McNabb has great, fast feet and has learned to lock them in to run the Eagles’ offense effectively.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I’m telling you, studying for week to week in the NFL, and memorization, and reflexive recall, you have to drive it into your brain so far.” – Steve Young

“I’d rather work with guys that have time to live with you, and let it gel.” – Steve Young

“I was known to spout off about [politics and religion] sometimes, especially in my drinkin’ days! It was pretty dangerous actually.” – Steve Young

“The theme—the power of every human being to reconcile with his past—was one that resonated with me in a big way.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I always had a hard time with Nashville. I reluctantly live there. I’ve mellowed, and it’s improved some, in the fact it has more immigrants. There’s some real Mexicans there, some folks from India, some of this and that. I’m not satisfied at all with living there. It’s a dilemma for me.” – Steve Young

“I wish I could’ve met my wife earlier. I do the math and I want 30 more years. I wish I’d started having kids earlier.” – Steve Young

“When you play quarterback in San Francisco, not much goes under the radar.” – Steve Young

“When you’re an elite athlete, it’s a very special moment in time and you don’t want it to end.” – Steve Young

“If you exhaust every play out of the pocket, what happens is you find more opportunities.” – Steve Young

“Success is really about expertise.” – Steve Young

“I was a young folk singer or wanted to be. I really wanted to be a New England folk singer, but they never would accept me. I was always hard to categorize, and people wouldn’t know what to make of it.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I like the idea of having an old Gibson [guitar], but I don’t have one. The Gibson has a different quality, but it’s almost like you need both.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“I loved playing Dallas.” – Steve Young

“You don’t know the demons people deal with, and you just have no idea.” – Steve Young

“The wins and losses are over for Rice, the football player, who leaves with 38 NFL records. He was the easiest guy in the world to throw the football to. You always knew where he was headed.” – Steve Young

“There’s a difference between a dream and a plan. There’s nothing wrong with having a dream, but the danger is attaching your happiness to it because life doesn’t always go according to plan.” – Steve Young

“I was made to go to church and I heard the gospel songs, and every now and then somebody would come through with a guitar and that was a thrill! – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“In the NFL, you’re always facing an obstacle.” – Steve Young

“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.” – Steve Young

“When I played for the 49ers, we loved to see man-to-man defense. I could get the ball quickly to the receivers.” – Steve Young

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