Young paved the way for me understanding and enjoying the game of football beyond my home region Buffalo Bills. Watching him helped teenage me understand football beyond the no-huddle offense and stoic passing quarterbacks like I was used to watching with Jim Kelly and Frank Reich. I was too young for my father’s favorite quarterback ever, Fran Tarkington, so my dad used Young as an example of what I had missed in the 1970s. Plus, my dad was naturally obsessed with any NFL player who shared his first name (Steve). That meant that my family loved Steve Tasker, Steve Wallace, Steve Bono, and Steve DeBerg along side Young. If you were a Steve, you were a football player worth watching.

But Young also paved the way for many of the ways we look at quarterbacks beyond the playing field today. While quarterbacks had always had some endorsement deals and occasionally made poor attempts at humor on Saturday Night Live and variety shows, Young took the idea of “quarterback as superstar” to a whole new level. He was one of the most commercially viable quarterbacks of all time, paving the way for what we see the Manning brothers and Tom Brady endorsing today. In 1994-95, he became one of the first celebrities featured in a “Got Milk” ad, shilled for Powerade and the then-brand-new PowerBar, and predated Brady as a Visa spokesperson, taking wide receiver Jerry Rice out to a fancy dinner. (Brady did a similar ad a decade later featuring his offensive linemen.) Young also became the king of the television cameo – he did gigs on several TV shows, including the original Beverly Hills, 90210 (every 1990s teenagers favorite show.) Even today, Young is has more national endorsements than some active quarterbacks. Young and his Dallas Cowboys counterpart Troy Aikman set the stage for how a quarterback could be used off the field, and in many respects, also carved out the niche of “quarterback as celebrity.” Quarterbacks were more than just football players – they could be well spoken, be good looking and have lives outside of football.

Steve Young wasn’t the best quarterback of all time, but he was a hell of a quarterback regardless. He was mobile, he read the field and distributed the ball well, and he was a great leader of his offense. That and his off the field presence made him a significant part of NFL history.

And if it hadn’t been for tweenage and teenage me becoming obsessed with him like my friends had with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, I might not be writing about sports today. They had their Tiger Beat posters of the Home Improvement star, and I had my Sports Illustrated covers of Young. So happy half century, Mr. Young.

(If anyone can find his famous “self-catch,” let me know. I wanted to put it in this post, but can’t find it.)

Steve Young and his famous 1988 run against Minnesota

Steve Young and Super Bowl XXIX

I’ve been searching high and low for Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL?, the ESPN 30 by 30 documentary about the 1980s pro football league. Every time I attempted to DVR it, something (i.e. my husband’s settings to record every Star Trek series episode known to man) would sabotage it. Flipping through my OnDemand menu Monday night, I realized that it was available – and expires Wednesday! I dropped everything and immediately started watching – all of my Commencement work would have to wait.

Seeing that I’ve written two papers on the USFL (one as a freshman sports communications major, the other in my athletics management class during grad school), the information filmmaker Mike Tollins presents wasn’t necessarily new to me. That being said, I still ate it up. I loved it. The 1980s footage of Boston University’s Nickerson Field, where the Boston Breakers played was epic. The story of John Bassett, owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits, who showed an amazing devotion to his team despite suffering from brain tumors, was heartbreaking.

But of course, my love for this documentary boils down to the quarterbacks. To me, nothing will ever match the quarterbacks I grew up watching in the 80s and 90s, and Small Potatoes features the two that influenced my football fandom most: Steve Young and Jim Kelly. The discussion of their epic 1985 Week 1 duel, a come from behind 34-33 win for Kelly’s Houston Gamblers over Young’s Los Angeles Express, finally showed footage of something I have only been able to read about for years. The only word very tired and burnt out me can come up with to describe it is a “football-gasm.” The two quarterbacks that so influenced my youth talking about an epic passing duel between the two? Ahhhhh, I want to watch it again now.

I am now on the lookout for footage of that entire 1985 game, but until then, I’ve come across footage of the 1984 meeting between the two on YouTube. Even if you just watch part 1 of these three YouTube clips for the cheesy ESPN intro that kicks things off, you’ll be glad you did. And let me tell you, the combination of this footage plus Small Potatoes cured that pesky eye twitch. Nothing like football nostalgia to keep the doctor away.

As I wrote in 2009, that Super Bowl also meant a lot to me because reading the Sports Illustrated covering that game inspired me to want to be a sportswriter. If you doubt how much that one issue impacted me, I present to you a photo taken this morning of the ragged original copy that has moved with me to college, to Boston and grad school and now to my place in the ‘burbs. It may be torn, it may be worth absolutely nothing – but to me, it’s worth everything.

There are days where I wonder why I down multiple cups of coffee a day and sit up all hours of the evening to write for anyone and everyone who asks, despite working a demanding full-time job. All I have to do is break this out and flip through a few pages. If I can chronicle some event as well as King and Rich Telander did in this issue, and inspire some awkward thirteen year old by doing so, then all the late nights will all be worth it.

—–

Surprisingly, I’ve only written two blog posts over the years on Super Bowl XXIX. Here they are:

Fourteen Years Later, I Experience My Super Bowl XXIX

On Excitement and Nervousness

If you want to see some of the other newspaper clippings thirteen year old me saved from that Super Bowl, I took pictures and posted them on Flickr. It’s from back when there were two newspapers (Democrat and Chronicle and Times Union) in Rochester, NY. Snapping shots of these this morning made me appreciate newspapers the tactile quality. Saving printed articles from online isn’t the same as trotting out my folder of newspaper clippings.

Of course, I had to immediately download the game for my iPod Touch, and I have to say while it is not for football purists – I mean, you have to dodge pigs, bombs and tornados to get to the endzone, and Young screams “Ow, my torso!” when you run into one of those obstacles – it’ll be a fun and addictive game to play on the commuter rail after a long day at work.

And another part of the marketing campaign? A shirt you can purchase from the developers featuring the video game version of Steve Young that reads, “I am so Steve Young.”

Now #1 on my Christmas List. (Photo: Vaporware Labs)

Mr. Young and Vaporware Labs, I approve.

The bracket banner outside the Verizon Center. (Photo by me.)

When I was thirteen, I read Peter King and Rick Telander’s coverage of Super Bowl XXIX for Sports Illustrated and decided right then and there that I wanted to be a sportswriter. I wanted to be there to watch someone reach a pinnacle in their sport and then encapsulate the entire emotional experience for those who couldn’t be there in words.  I can not pin point a single paragraph or passage of the lead article by Telander that inspired me the most, because there are just too many – from the passage about Jerry Rice, to Eddie DeBartalo and Carmen Policy trying to fathom ways their team could actually lose, to the end passage about Steve Young being so emotionally and physically spent that paramedics had to be sent to his hotel room (which also mentioned his girlfriend of the moment, which slowly broke teenaged crushed me’s heart). At that moment, I knew one of my life goals was to watch an championship sporting event – be it a Super Bowl, winning game of a World Series or Stanley Cup, or even a Calder Cup. I wanted to be there, and I wanted to write about it.

Fast forward fourteen years, to April 11, 2009 in Washington, D.C. In the most unlikely of sports to 13 year old me, college hockey, I finally saw a championship in person. And a week and a half removed from said event, I am finding that encapsulating that moment of victory into words is the most difficult thing I have ever had to write.

You see, there are no words that I can find that describe what it was like to be in the arena when Boston University won the National Championship in overtime. And there is no single story that encapsulates the spirit of the event. And yes, I have stories upon stories upon stories that I could tell surrounding the game and during it – of the pre-game gathering with hundreds of BU fans young and old who had traveled from literally around the world, to when I paced the concourse with mothers when they went down 3-1 in the third, to the priceless interactions between players and their families at the post-game gathering – but I don’t know if they would ever do justice to seeing a team win a championship, a pinnacle in their particular sport.

I have struggled for days about what to write about the Frozen Four, the trip, the games and the overall experience, and the only conclusions I have come to, after about fifty drafts, have been 1) it was the single best thing I have ever done in my twenty-seven years and 2) how difficult it had to have been for the Telander to write that piece in 1995, to envelope what the 49ers Super Bowl XXIX win meant to them and those players, Young in particular, because that piece made me feel like I was there, and there are no words that I can find that describe that well what it is like to be there for something of that magnitude.

It was just about the neatest thing ever.

The celebration after BU won the National Championship in OT. (Photo by me.)

First off, he called ESPN “dumb.” Oh Steve, for all of your smarts, you can sure put your foot in your mouth sometimes. Like the time you called out Phil Simms on national television. I despise Simms as well, and think he was wicked overrated as a quarterback (just like his son), but I’d never call him out on it on national television.

Hmm…maybe I would, but I would do it under a pseudonym and hide for a few weeks following.

Steve, I’ll offer you the same piece of advice I offered Bill Simmons a few months ago. Don’t publicly “dis” your employer. Don’t blog on a underground Blogger account about how ESPN is the man and how they don’t let you post every 7,000 word tomb you write, even if you have a legitimate point. Don’t call out ESPN on ESPN, even if you have pent up anger about having to do a show with Emmitt “I Have Never Heard of Subject-Verb Agreement” Smith and Stuart “Boo-yah!” Scott. Both are examples of burning bridges. I tell my students all the time not to burn bridges, especially with employers, potential employers, and the like. If you ever want a job, it probably isn’t a good idea to burn bridges.

Steve and Bill, you need a career counselor to give you the counseling you obviously didn’t receive at Brigham Young and Holy Cross, respectively. I volunteer. Email me. I’ll help you.

Secondly, in the most egregious assault of one of my favorite athletes since Saturday night’s BU-BC game, a Carolina Panthers fan threw a beer cup at Steve Young. Fortunately, he missed. Steve stayed calm and professional throughout the incident, which does not surprise me. Think about it. For one, he’s a lawyer. Lawyers get stuff thrown at them all the time. (Well, I mean, not all the time. But they are the recipients of a lot of vile comments and hate, which are metaphorically thrown at them. Right?) Additionally, Steve Young has like five children under the age of 10. He has toys, clothes, diapers and cut-up-bits of food thrown at him every single minute of his waking life.

Therefore, having a empty beer cup thrown at him was not going to phase Steve Young. Nothing phases Steve, except for sharing a show with Emmitt Smith or Michael Irvin. But then again, wouldn’t that bug you too?

Don't worry, Rian Lindell - I'm still thankful for you.

This Thanksgiving day, I have a lot to be thankful for. In the spirit of many blogs today, I will now provide a laundry list of all the things – sports related, that is – that I am thankful for:

I am thankful that the Buffalo Bills are still in Buffalo.

I am thankful that Dick Jauron has resisted the urge to throw in JP Losman when Trent Edwards has gone through his growing pains.

Reluctantly, I am thankful for Rian Lindell, because for every 47 yarder to win the game he misses, he blasts 50 other field goals and extra points through the uprights. (And I still don’t understand why more people are not naming their sons Rian with an i.)

I am thankful for the Buffalo Sabres’ third jerseys, because they remind me of my childhood.

I am thankful that the Florida Panthers aren’t completely running away of the mess that the Rochester Amerks are in, and actually will face the fans and address their growing concerns about the team.

I am thankful that Gabe Kapler came back from retirement and coaching the Single – A Greenville Drive to play for the Milwaukee Brewers, and had a few moments of greatness during the season.

I am thankful that of all the players the Boston Red Sox could have received in a trade for Manny Ramirez, they got Jason Bay. From a pox in the clubhouse to everyone’s favorite humble Canadian.

I am thankful that the NCAA is recognizing Steve Young’s accomplishments both on and off the field in January by giving him a 2009 Silver Annerversary Award. In case you aren’t familiar with his story, while Young was setting passing and rushing records in the NFL, he was going to law school in the off-season.

I am thankful for the lacrosse dynasty that is the Rochester, NY professional lacrosse. Big ups for making my hometown relevant.

I am thankful for all of the junior and senior elite gymnasts, like those I saw during the US Championships, who might not ever make it to the Olympics, but put such effort and energy into their sport anyway.

I am thankful for original floor exercise routines and music, which are way too few and far between. I am also thankful for unique and fun balance beam mounts.

I am thankful for Phil Kessel finally, finally, finally being used correctly in the Boston Bruins playbook and having a smash up season so far because of it. (I am also thankful because he’s cute.)

I am thankful that a college hockey player I watched while I’ve had season tickets has actually played in a NHL game (John Curry.) You don’t have to leave college early and/or be drafted at age 18 to play in the NHL.

I am thankful that former Hockey East goalies are getting mega NHL love this year, with Ben Bishop playing with the St. Louis Blues, Cory Schneider getting called up by the Canucks, Curry playing with the Penguins, and Jonathan Quick getting time up with the LA Kings.

I am thankful that the senior class of the Boston University Terriers men’s hockey team have kicked the intensity up a notch this season, and hope despite the current slump, they continue to play with such drive.

I am thankful that the Mullins Center at UMass Amherst is so amusing.

I am thankful for the Skating Monk, aka the Providence College Friar, and his participation in the Hockey East Semifinal mascot game despite PC not being in the semifinals.

I am thankful that hockey has such a lively and fun online community.

I am thankful for all of my blog readers, for letting me fulfill my teenage dream of being a sportswriter (despite in a much different way than what fourteen year old me imagined.)

And, I am thankful for coffee, without which none of this would be possible.

You have been the object of my squee since I was old enough to have a celebrity mega crush. Even though I am now older, engaged, and have moved on to other objects of squee like Gabe Kapler and Jason Bay, you will always be my number one.

I try to catch your commentary on Monday Night Football every Monday. (I must say, Emmitt Smith makes you sound even more eloquent than you already are.) Although I had to work late on Monday, I was able to catch your post-game analysis after the Packers-Saints game. While watching, I had one overwhelming question:

What happened to your hair?

Did you dye it? It looked much lighter. Is your hair negatively reacting to the New Orleans weather? If so, I can point you in the direction of some excellent anti-frizz products. (Then again, so could your ex-model wife.) Are you so busy with your multiple children that you didn’t have time to comb it? If so, that is completely excusable – you have like five now, and not everyone can look as good as Kate Gossalin when running after their multiple young children.

I feel bad for you, and I feel even worse for pointing out in a public forum. However, I just want you to know that I’ll still be a fan, through good hair and bad, through ESPN moving you off Sunday NFL Countdown because they no longer wanted commentators with an IQ higher than 80 and your Samsung HD television advertisements where you are inexplicably wearing shabby flip-flops.

Best wishes,

Sports Girl Kat

Your #10 fan since 1992

*************

I am off to see the Boston University Terriers take on the Crusaders of the College of the Holy Cross. The Terriers have played very well against non-conference opponents this season – they are undefeated against them – but we know what we’re pretending didn’t happen last weekend. Let’s hope this evening ends well.

My knee-jerk reaction was, “Oh, Perez is going to be all over Young ’cause he’s Mormon and probably all for the proposition.”  Then I read the post.  It turns out Young’s wife is very publicly against the proposition, and has donated a significant amount of money to the cause and has signs in front of their California house urging people to vote no on the proposition.

Perez Hilton was praising the Youngs for their stance. Wow.  I never thought I would see the day that Steve Young and his blink-and-there’s-another-kid family would be on the Pepto-Bismol pink pages of the craziest celebrity gossip site there is, let alone Perez singing their praises.

Hey, this can only benefit me – maybe now when I mention Young to anyone who doesn’t follow football, they might actually know who I am talking about!

I have two blog entries upcoming – one on jerseys (no, I’m not turning into UniWatch), and the other on biking. Both should be finished shortly.  But here are a few short notes to tide you over.

The Arizona Cardinals hate me - In late September of 1999, Arizona Aeneas Williams slipped by San Francisco 49er center Jeremy Newberry to level a devastating hit to an already concussed Steve Young to knock him unconscious (although Young would never admit to that, the tape proves otherwise) and end Young’s career.  I watched it live on Monday Night Football, and I doubt I’ll ever forget that hit.

Fast forward to October 5, 2008.  Arizona Cardinal Adrian Wilson slips by a distracted Buffalo Bills offensive line to level a late hit on Bills quarterback Trent Edwards, by some reports knocking him briefly unconscious and taking him out of the game with a concussion.  Thank goodness Edwards is young and the Bills have a bye this Sunday.

Dear Arizona Cardinals: What have I ever done to you?

Unfortunately, the Bills lost their first game to the Cardinals after JP Loser-man had to come in and depress the entire Bills team.  The Bills don’t want to hustle for him.  Heck, Dick Jaron should have put in third stringer Gibran Hamdan instead – I think the team would have played better for him than they did for Losman, and he probably would have played better.  (Although Losman’s 87 yard pass to Lee Evans was great, but you could have seen that coming, given that Evans is Losman’s only buddy on the team.)

North Dakota Has Blood - As in, Ben Blood, a freshman defensemen for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.  What a fitting name for a hockey player, and a defensemen no less!  If a kid was ever born to be a hockey player, that kid was.  Blood, along with the rest of the UND team, joined Michigan State, UMass Amherst and host Boston University at the Icebreaker tournament this weekend at Agganis Arena.  And like the college hockey junkie I am, I was there.

UND and Boston University played Friday evening in the first round, second game of the Icebreaker.  Boston University played like I had not seen in two years and beat UND 5-1.  This was my second time ever watching UND play (the first was at the first NCAA Regional I ever went to in 2005 – I don’t remember that much, as I was on my first date with my now-fiance) and I am impressed at their speed – they do not seem like a college team on the ice at all, and could hold their own in an NHL game.  I know why despite graduations, the Sioux visit the Frozen Four every year.  Holy heck, someone get head coach Dave Hakstol an NHL job stat. (Really, Tampa Bay, a college coach like Hakstol is out there and you go get Barry Melrose to replace my beloved Tortorella? Insane.)

But what was most telling about Friday evening’s UND-BU game was that BU was able to match UND’s speed throughout three periods.  The past two seasons, it has been evident that BU was too slow, and got sluggish easily, which when combined with awful goaltending and lack of leadership like last year, is a disaster.  BU changed their training regimen this off-season (On campus at 6am? You might see players running down Comm Ave) and it seems to have paid off.  It also doesn’t hurt that the team finally has two legitimate goaltenders in freshmen Kirian Milian and Grant Rollheiser (can we call him Rollie yet?) It was easily the best played BU men’s hockey game in years.  The arena was buzzing with excitement.  Let’s see if they can keep it up tonight against Michigan State.

Michigan State played UMass in the first game of Day 1 of the Icebreaker, and my UMass predictions (that they might be a force to be reckoned with in Hockey East this season) quickly were proved incorrect.  Wow, was UMass bad.  As a UMass fan who was sitting behind me during the UND-BU game said, “It’s going to be a long season.  It’s not that they’re bad.  It’s that they obviously don’t care.”  I don’t know if I entirely agree – the team showed effort in the third and played most of that period at Michigan State goalie Jeff Lerg’s feet – but they weren’t as snappy and scrappy as they were last spring.  They may just be a second half of the season team, but they were missing passes and making silly wide shots on goal, and it was just embarrassing for them.  Let’s hope they can get it together before conference play begins.  However, as Chris, my partner in crime (aka fiance) said, expect UND to wipe the floor with them this afternoon in revenge.

I also have learned to love Lerg.  Lerg reminds me of Everyone’s Favorite Goalie (aka John Curry) and is as good as advertised.  This was my first time seeing him, and he was awesome.  He’s short, but he has a quick response time, a good pivot, and a good eye.

I’ll try to be back Saturday night or Sunday with updates from my day o’sports – Battle of the BU’s soccer and Day 2 of the Icebreaker.