It’s the 50th birthday of my favorite NFL quarterback of all time, former San Francisco 49er Steve Young. (Or as my husband likes to refer to him, “Joe Montana’s Backup.” But when he does that, he gets the silent treatment for a good 20 minutes following.)
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
