By Dwight Chapin
EXAMINER SENIOR WRITER

ONE THING seems certain about Steve Young. In five years, he's going to become the only left-handed quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It may not be quite as sure as his plaque in Canton, but most knowledgeable observers agree that Young also is the top running quarterback of all time.

And the statistics say he's the highest-rated passer, too.

With all that evidence behind him, Young's legacy seems secure. About all that's left is the sometimes shifting opinion of history.

How will the just-retired Young be judged 10 years from now? Twenty years? Fifty?

That's harder to predict, but if the current views stand up, he'll continue to be rated among a handful of the all-time best.

"I really believe he's one of the top five players ever to play the game at his position," said Denver coach (and former 49er offensive coordinator) Mike Shanahan.

"He's the best athlete to have ever played quarterback," said his former 49er coach, Bill Walsh.

Television analyst and former coach John Madden used almost the same words as Walsh, then said, "When you take the combination of being able to pass, run and pass and run, he's the best. There was no one way you could play him. There have been a lot of quarterbacks who could run and throw, but none had speed that could get them into the secondary and then outrun anybody. Steve could do that. With 4.5 speed (in the 40-yard dash), he was as fast as a running back or a defensive back."

Undoubtedly, it will be Young's speed that is remembered first -- speed and true grit when he was carrying the ball, most prominently displayed in a highlight-reel 49-yard TD run against Minnesota in 1988.

A number of other NFL quarterbacks have been noted for their running.

One-time Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass ran because he couldn't pass. Randall Cunningham, who has rushed for more career yards than any NFL quarterback (Young is second) often had to run because he took too long to pass. The young John Elway was a mobile and very effective runner. The old one usually wasn't.

Even Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton, generally regarded as the best runners among the Hall of Fame quarterbacks, didn't have Young's extra dimension.

Tarkenton was a scrambler, whose darting and dodging were designed to buy him time to throw.

Staubach was more of a pure running threat, but even he said, "Although I did run forward a lot, unlike Tarkenton, and I had fairly good quickness for short spurts, I didn't have Steve's great speed."

Tongue in cheek, Staubach added, "If we were in a race, he might beat me."

Young's feet and pluck carried him to 4,799 rushing yards and an NFL quarterback record 43 touchdowns on the ground.

His throwing -- very raw early in his career -- took longer to develop, but he left the game as the highest-rating passer in the league's 80-year history. He won a record six passing titles. His 2.17 touchdown-to-interception is the best ever. And his average per pass of 7.98 is fourth-highest in league annals.

That last figure is significant because Young played in a West Coast offense that emphasized short and medium-range passes.

After perusing all the numbers, Sporting News columnist Dan Pompei wrote, "It may not be a stretch to call Young the best quarterback of all time, better even than the guy he replaced, Joe Montana.

"As author Bob Oates pointed out (in a recent football history), Montana had the advantage of playing in the West Coast offense when the 49ers were the only team running it, and the league didn't know how to defend it. When Young came along, defenses were geared to stop it."

It wasn't hard to get Young testimonials from people in high football places the last few days.

A sampling:

Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts: "I think Steve should be saluted as one of the all-time greats. Because of his mobility, the game has never seen a quarterback like him. I'm not sure anyone is going to reach his status.

"As to exactly where he ranks, there seem to be about 20 guys in the top five right now. But his numbers are phenomenal. When I spent 31/2 years in San Francisco (as KPIX-TV's sports anchor), I really got a chance to appreciate what kind of player and person he is. But I get the feeling that over time, he may be underrated, kind of like Terry Bradshaw, who won all those games and championships but nobody ever seems to put him in with the top quarterbacks."

Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson: "Steve was a winner, No. 1, and I think you should judge him first on that. But he was also an intelligent quarterback, a complete quarterback with a lot of skills and a lot of intangibles. Down the road, I think people will just look at the statistics, and his stats are better than anybody's."

Seattle coach and former 49er offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren: "Steve will be remembered for his uniqueness. He's arguably the finest running quarterback ever in the game and he also possessed tremendous passing skills and leadership ability. That combination is extremely rare."

Staubach: "I was a big fan of his. He always played with a lot of courage and a lot of dimensions. He was helped by playing on some very good teams, but, given equal circumstances, Steve Young could compete with any quarterback who ever played the game. He was the real deal."

Shanahan: "He could do it all. He had a great sense of timing. He could make all the throws. He was a great competitor. He was a leader, on and off the football field. He could make plays when nothing was there. And he had that burning desire which only the great ones have to be as competitive as anyone."

Former 49er teammate Brent Jones: "There was no greater competitor. The big difference in Steve Young was that he was desperate to win. He played with desperation."

He also played with a strong sense of pride and tradition, of a 49er quarterback legacy that included the likes of Frankie Albert, Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie and Montana.

Despite all the accolades he's received and the record numbers he posted, Young inevitably will be judged with (or against) Montana, the man he replaced as 49er quarterback. Particularly in San Francisco.

"It's unfair to Steve, but that's life," Fouts said. "Joe was first. If it had been the other way around, who knows?"

Madden, who has called Montana the best quarterback ever, said, "Steve got partly out of Montana's shadow when Joe left, a little more when he won the Super Bowl, but I don't think he ever got completely out.

"But even in that shadow, Steve was always doing all this stuff. So even though I think that shadow will always be there, it shouldn't diminish what Steve did. He may not be the top quarterback that ever played, but I think he'll be up there in that top level."

Just about everybody seems to agree.

"His career," Staubach said, "was as good as it gets for a quarterback."