Steve Young
speaker
1,298 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 10 Jul
Steve Young’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 2.
Appearances
And so he and I were friendly.
and i immediately called him because he two weeks months before we were trying to get uh bo jackson to come down and he at dinner he goes this is my quarterback for life and so i called him i said mr culver she said i was your quarterback for life and now i'm getting thrown out of town i'm going you can't send me to st louis he goes oh i'm so sorry steve yeah new coach blah blah blah he goes but you're right i told you that i owe you a chance he nixed the trade just to uh to the cardinals like he stuck he went and cut it like i don't know what you do especially but he went and
you know, turn, you know, and they didn't agree to it. And then, so he called me back and he said, look, I'm going to give you a week and I want you to go find a place where you can thrive. And I'm like, he, he saved my life. And so then I talked to Bill Walsh and Bill Walsh's first thing he said to your question, I love the fact that you're left-handed. I think it's an advantage. I was like,
I mean, in college, my office coordinator said he wouldn't coach a lefty. So I was like, I think it's an advantage. And I love that your mobility, we're gonna have to make sure we know where you're going, but your mobility is a superpower. And I'm like, first thing out of the gate. And then he said, Joe Montana has just had his second back surgery. And I don't know how he comes back from it.
And so I'm like, I hate to hear that, but man, that's a real opportunity. And so, and then the first two things happened the first day. The first day I got to the 49ers, we had a summer camp and Bill Walsh walked in and he said something that I'll never forget. He said, look, I don't care what play we call. I don't care what defense we run.
We're going to win because we have shared common experiences amongst each other and an element of love for each other. That's how we're going to do it. And I was like, did he just, what did he just say? He wrote a book called The Score Takes Care of Itself because if you live values of Because he said, look, we're going to be in Green Bay playing the Packers at Lambeau Field.
It'll be drizzling rain and 31 degrees. You've never been cold in your life. The wind's going to be whipping. We'll be down by four, third and 10, no timeouts with a minute 10 left. And I want you to get in the huddle and I want to look across the huddle to people that you have a shared experience with and have some level of affection or some level of respect, like you know each other.
And I was like, this is crazy talk. I've never heard a coach talk like this in my, this is football. Right. What are you talking about? I'm used to coaches with a big stick just hitting you over the head. And so I'm telling you, Bill Walsh gets very, he gets a lot of credit, but not nearly as much as he should get at what the game looks like today.
like the game that we enjoy today is really off the back of that comp. And I learned it firsthand from the call I got when he told me he loves lefties and scramblers. And, uh, and then when he talked about, uh, but then the next thing we, we ended the meeting, we went out for the first practice and I'd never met Joe Montana and he came running out.
And the first thing I thought is he doesn't look real hurt.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Six years together. Yeah.
I mean, there's a book there. Yeah. It's a lot of chapters. It was the dynamic is, and I, and Joe would agree. I mean, it's just been awkward from the first day. Yeah. First day I showed up, it was awkward. And I think if, you know, when we see each other, it's, we never argued. We never had a crossword of each other. Never, I never had an argument.
I mean, we just didn't, but it was always awkward. And I don't think it was never not awkward. And the day when he was traded to the Chiefs, it remained awkward. When I got there and when we – you know, Bill was crazy. He would – Joe Montana won two Super Bowls. He'd drive the team down in the Superdome, and then he'd go, go in and run this play.
And I'd run in, and Joe would run off the – like I was – it was a crazy time. And it was all of that. And the fans – It was, they were being whiplashed and it was hard. And of course I was going to lose every conversation. In fact, I'll just one little thing I'll tell you. In 1991, the Gulf War had broken out in the Middle East.
And on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle and the headline, because at the time I was playing and things weren't going perfectly. And I think The whole Bay Area and really any 49er fan in the world was like, we need Joe. And I remember thinking to myself, well, he didn't. You guys know he lost a game. Like, no, that's impossible. He threw in a complete pass. I promise you.
Like, no, we don't remember that. On the first page of the Chronicle, it was the Gulf War. It's Steve Young's fault. You know what I mean? It was like a – and I think that tells you – how it was going for me.
And, and, and, and I, you know, and Bill, I mean, I think Joe and I both feel, looking back on the relationship we had with Bill Walsh, it was love-hate. Because, you know, he said, I put you guys together to get the best out of both of you. Joe hated to hear that, and I guess I hated to hear that, too. But yet, he was the king, Joe was the king, and I was... I was a freaking pauper, right?
And so the power dynamics were not good for me.
How cool is that? What I could have done with that.
I somewhat regret that moment because it reflects something I would have said two or three years before, because I, I, uh, I, it's a longer story. I met a guy named Steve Covey on a plane. Once the depths of my career trying to replace Joe and, and I,
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