Top 153 Quotes & Sayings by Steve Young

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Steve Young.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Steve Young

Jon Steven Young is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to his NFL career, he was a member of the Los Angeles Express in the United States Football League (USFL) for two seasons. Young played college football for Brigham Young University (BYU), setting school and NCAA records en route to being runner-up for the 1983 Heisman Trophy.

Donovan McNabb has great, fast feet and has learned to lock them in to run the Eagles' offense effectively.
I can't imagine as a rookie actually playing good football. I went through it.
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.
I'm willing to share my experiences with any young quarterback. — © Steve Young
I'm willing to share my experiences with any young quarterback.
There's a negative effect when you run around without exhausting everything that happens with the play call.
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.
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.
The truth is that in the NFL, the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket. That's the job.
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.
I never asked to be the highest paid player in sports.
I loved the expectation that every year we were going to the Super Bowl.
Most young quarterbacks are on the field because their team stinks.
To play 18 years as a pro and have a great college career, it's awesome.
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.
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.
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.'
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. — © Steve Young
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've put football behind me.
I went to law school.
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.
When I played for the 49ers, we loved to see man-to-man defense. I could get the ball quickly to the receivers.
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.
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.
Third and 10 down by four at Lambeau Field in the drizzling rain... two minutes left. There's nothing like that.
I always look at the NBA as kind of a muddled mess in the regular season, and then you just get in the tournament, just get in. And then the great teams just get on a roll and play well or the team that is hot gets hot and goes and wins it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you exhaust every play out of the pocket, what happens is you find more opportunities.
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 don't want to look like I'm money-hungry.
When you play quarterback in San Francisco, not much goes under the radar.
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.
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 quarterbacks learned the West Coast offense in college, oh man - it would make a huge difference.
I loved playing Dallas.
I always likened retirement to falling off a cliff, and then you have to kind of brush yourself off. — © Steve Young
I always likened retirement to falling off a cliff, and then you have to kind of brush yourself off.
I loved playing Green Bay.
I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.
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.
I always say football is very unnatural sport. Nobody loves to just ram into people.
I got good grades. I played sports.
Bye weeks are nerve?wracking.
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.
My wife hates football, and my kids don't really care.
You don't know the demons people deal with, and you just have no idea.
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.
You can play with a brain that is injured - you can't play with an injured knee. That's the problem.
My dad's an old football player. — © Steve Young
My dad's an old football player.
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.
Most people have an off switch and they choose when to go all out.
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.
Success is really about expertise.
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.
No one will ever say Dwight Clark was selfish.
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 played 18 seasons. That's a lot. There is some that played more. Brett Favre I think played a couple more. There is a few. There is a few guys that played more, but not many.
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