NFL.com
Young's retirement press conference
June 12, 2000
"I have been playing football for 30 years — maybe almost 31 now. That is a lot of time in your life. Almost half of them have been as a 49er. I think that many wondered what we are doing here in the locker room. When they asked me, 'Where?' I thought, 'Where else?'
"This is the most intimate place for a player. This is a place where you make all the big decisions. This is where you do all the sweats and where the pieces of it that are so important to a football player are. This is where the relationships are forged. In a way, this is where football happens away from the crowd.
"One of the secrets of my success has always been (that) I show up for work everyday and I give it all I got and this is where I showed up for work. So, in a way I guess, I wanted to show up for work one more day and so I appreciate you all joining us in the locker room. I hope that my teammates forgive me for allowing you into our space. As Ronnie Lott said, this is where — this is a place of great respect.
"Over those years playing football I have made many great decisions and (as) I look back on them, they all make sense to me today.
"But for today, obviously, this is a tough decision. But I know that I have made the right one because I have studied it out. And I really feel it in my heart, and I can't deny it. And so I retire from the great game of football today. But (as) I go forward, I am thrilled about what lies ahead for me, the new challenges, the new experiences. But at the same time, sad at the end of an era that has been so much to me.
"I have used football as a metaphor in many ways for my only personal life for my personal growth and development. I have learned the tough lessons of humility and patience and isn't it true that under pressure we truly learn about ourselves and we get to know ourselves so much more.
"I am grateful for the pressure of football. From when I was a little kid to today, that pressure remained constant. The pressure to perform taught me some of the greatest lessons of my life and really in many ways that is why I love the game of football.
"But now I move on and for the record, I know I can still play. The fire still burns but not enough for the stakes — given the stakes to go back out. But the truth is, there is plenty of football left in me. But I have done what I set out to do and I think that over time that is what settled on me most the last couple of weeks. And I have attained all the goals and even more than I could have ever dreamed of, and that I have set for myself.
"In many ways, what lies ahead for me is maybe more important than what I leave behind. The talent and skills that I have gleaned from football, hopefully will enable me to help others pursue similar dreams, maybe not so famous and maybe not so apparent, but to enable people around me to have chances; to have opportunities; to get on the field.
"A lot of people are forced to watch and there is a huge difference. There is a little white line that separates the sidelines from the field. It seems very innocuous and something that really seems so easy to cross, but there is a dramatic difference between what happens on the sidelines and what happens on the field.
"I really am grateful for my chances on the field. And I intend, to the best of my ability, (to) help others step over that line in whatever metaphorical way or real way that I can. That is my intent for the next part of my life.
"I loved playing for the San Francisco 49ers. I am very proud of what we accomplished together here in the Bay Area. It brings me great joy just to think about all the things that have happened. I love Candlestick Park. I love the music that they play after touchdowns. I love the hyped-up roar of a Monday night crowd and the fog rolling in.
"I loved facing the sidelines all those years. I loved playing Dallas. And I loved playing Green Bay. I loved the expectations that every year we were going to the Super Bowl and we almost did. I loved walking the tunnel for many years with my great friend Brent Jones from the locker room to the field and the place always smelled a little bit like a landfill and it had a unique smell, that is a Candlestick smell, and I will miss that.
"I will miss that walk that we made every week. I love the feeling that our offense and the anticipation that we were going to score 50, but many times we didn't, but we usually scored enough. I will miss the 49er people, the relationships that we forged over all these years, through some tough times and some great times and I think those make for great relationships.
"Obviously what comes to mind in this locker room are my teammates, the guys that I played with, the guys that I forged lifelong relationships. You ask any player, they will tell you the greatest memory in football is the guys they played with because when you are down by seven and in the fourth quarter and (facing) third-and-10 and you are in the Superdome.
"The things that happen next forge relationships that won't be broken and so I am grateful and I can't name everybody for sure, but the guys that I played with that were kind of intimately involved in my life in helping me make decisions.
"I mentioned Brent Jones and Tim McDonald and John Frank, Harris Barton, Jerry Rice, Kenny Norton, (Bryant Young), (Junior Bryant), Gary Plummer, Bart Oates, all of my linemen. I mean, imagine what your job is to protect me. I mean, I have said many times, it is funny, 202 times they protected me and given me the ball and given me the responsibility of the game and 202 times I have thrown an interception and there is that moment when they turn around and look at me like, 'What in the world have you just done?'
"I look with strong feelings today for the guys in the locker room, the guys that truly fought and exposed their bodies to great risk to protect me. That goes for everybody, but the guys that I have played with the longest I think were Jesse (Sapolu) and Steve (Wallace) and Guy (McIntyre) and Harris and, you know, Chris Dalman and Derrick Deese, Ray Brown, Dave Fiore — oh, my gosh, it is just everybody. I appreciate them so much. Those are the relationships that will stay. That is why if I get emotional and I am trying not to, it would be about the relationships that I forged.
"Then there is the old line, the Joes, the Ronnies, the Eric (Wrights), Roger Craigs, (John Taylor), Keena (Turner), Tom (Rathman), all those guys when I first showed up taught me what it was like to be a 49er. They were the ones that showed me and there was something special and I did everything in my power with the guys that I mentioned earlier to keep that alive.
"It is something worth sacrificing for. I appreciate those guys that brought that torch to me and in many ways, I hope that I took it and made it burn even brighter and helped it to stay strong.
"I can't tell you how much time I spent worrying and fretting, you know if anyone knows me, that is one of my talents. How much time I have spent worrying and fretting over keeping that flame bright; making sure that we did and honored what was done before us.
"I am shocked that — I am not shocked, I am just amazed that the work that went into maintaining that. Obviously, there is a framework and a system that you need to have to be able to perform and I have had the best. That framework has been forged by the DeBartolo family.
"Eddie, for many years, obviously, the greatest owner in sports, allowed us to go out and do the many great things we needed to do. Now Denise (DeBartolo York) and John York, I have forged a wonderful relationship with them and I am grateful for their care of the 49ers and their care for building a structure for us to be able to go perform.
"I watch the pros all the time in different games — I mean, different sports and it is all about the owner and it is all about the passion and I am so grateful for Denise and John and Eddie for all that they did.
"Obviously, there (are) all the people that helped them through their late '80s, early '90s, Carmen (Policy) … and Dwight (Clark), and John McVay and Dominik and just everybody that you walk around upstairs for years, I wouldn't go upstairs, I was too afraid. I was like — until 1998 when everybody left and I owned the place (laughs).
"Tim McDonald and I used to go up there and kick our feet up there and act like we were making big decisions.
"But I think that enough has been written about that. But as a player, you can't know what it means to be able to have a structure and an ability to go perform and I am grateful to the people who made that happen.
"Now, it comes to me the people that really changed lives and have changed my life, my life. I think that, for me, I have been coached from when I was little boy by the greatest coaches alive. And the names you will hear will prove it, but I started at a very young age, seven years old, I started playing football with Jack Slagel. He loved football, but yet he loved people more and I remember being a running back and my favorite memory of that is my mom charging the field and grabbed the kid that just tackled me and threatening him to never hit me again.
"But that is the start of my football career in junior high school and high school I played with the legendary, in Connecticut, Mike Ronato, who is still coaching after what, geez, 60 years, I don't know if it is possible but it seems like it. We ran the veer option and there were three options in every play and all I remember about high school was all my teammates yelling: Pitch it, pitch it. I couldn't quite get myself to do it all the time.
"Then in college, that is where I learned to throw the ball. I am grateful for Jim McMahon to show me how to throw the ball. … I was able to just watch him and learn to throw. Until then I didn't know the first thing about throwing a football. I probably didn't throw as far until I was 18, 20 years old. I learned. I am grateful for my college coaches here — (Brigham Young University head coach) LaVell Edwards he has been coaching for not 60 years, but close. But he is a legend and he is the guru of the forward pass. He is the one that gave me a chance.
"He is the one that believed (in) a kid who ran 4.4 as a freshman, who didn't throw know how to throw a spiral … he gave me the opportunity and I am grateful to him. All these years has given me great support, advice, constantly giving me — when tough times came — the words of encouragement that I needed.
"(I) started (as the) eighth quarterback at BYU, so this is a remarkable journey. I am grateful for Ted Tollner who was my first quarterback coach who is the guy that said, 'You know what, I think you can do it; I think that you can play quarterback.' He was willing to coach a lefty. At that time, 20 years ago, it still was not really the thing to do; lefties usually were left out and he was able to coach a lefty.
"Obviously, Mike Holmgren was my next coach, a men of legend right now. I talked to him the other day. He has mini camp, he would have come down. I invited all my past coaches today because of the impact that they have had in my life. I am sorry they can't be here. But he was a man of great ingenuity. He loved to throw the ball and I loved to throw the ball so we got along pretty good except the timeouts were — he would be so mad at me and I wouldn't come to the sidelines until he calmed down and things would bulge and I just — you know, I talked to him about 15 feet away. I have always frustrated him, but that is another story.
"Then I came here and who do I get coached with, the great Bill Walsh and Mike Holmgren again. It is just so ironic that it would come full circle.
"I am sorry, I missed out one of the important part of my life and that is the USFL. One of the reasons I did that, went to L.A. was because I was going to be coached by the great Sid Gillman and coming out of college I think LaVell and Mike told me that would be the opportunity of a lifetime and it was. Sid was somebody that … drilled me until it got dark. We had been on the field, I said, 'Coach, I can't even see.' He'd say, 'I don't care, we got to get this straight.'
"Then we go in and watch film, that is the old days when the film was on reel. We had been watching it and at the end you would hear the di-donk-di-donk of the film. I would look over at Sid, he was out cold. Then I'd have to drive him home, you know. I don't know how he got to work but I always had to drive him home.
"But he was a classic and he would tell me this is the step. These are the exact steps you need to take. This is the way you have to play football. And this is after I have already been at BYU so it was just the enhancement that I constantly got.
"Then I got my head coach Mr. (John) Hadl; you could imagine what that was like. Then a man that passed away last week, I am so sorry to have to, but Don Klosterman was my first general manager as a pro and he was the best. He was … dandy and he was a football man and I learned about professional football right there. I can't tell you how grateful I am for Don and I am sorry to see his passing.
"I thought you may not know Bill Walsh and Sid Gillman both were unable to be here because they are speaking at his funeral this afternoon as we speak. I wish I could be there too. This is the way things worked out, but my feelings go out to his family I can't tell you how much I appreciated Don Klosterman.
"But here, obviously Bill and Mike working with me, I can remember the great stories of Bill when I first got mere telling me: You got to step up; you got to know where-- the players need to know where you are. And he just drilled me over and over. I'd just come from Sid, I was like, geez, this is crazy, these guys are driving me crazy, but they developed me into a quarterback and I am grateful.
"And all the offensive coordinators that followed, Mike Holmgren like I mentioned; Mike Shanahan, I think, made it. Mike, I appreciate, you know that; he and his wife Peggy; he came at a time in my career where (because of) the personality, the way that he coached, the way that he made me feel as a quarterback, I felt like I could do anything and in some ways did. I am so grateful for Mike to come over. It was an impactful time in my life and the three years there, I don't know if any of those three years would be able to be duplicated. It was a very special time culminated by a Super Bowl.
"Marc Trestman, who I invited, has a minicamp. I am grateful, Marty Mornhinweg, Greg Knapp, all the coaches that last couple of years and then there are two head coaches. George Seifert, I am most famous for yelling at him, but we have actually had a lot of great conversations. He is in Mexico and he couldn't make it.
"I am very grateful for George, all of you that follow the 49ers, it is amazing. Now I am just — it is just hitting me as you see, just the immensity of the people that have been part of my life, that really had a passion and love for the game and they have instilled it in from players to coaches. Obviously.
"(In the) last couple of years, 1998, to me, one of greatest years just because of the circumstances and, you know, so in my mind I leave the game, I have played my best football; that is because of the way I was coached.
"I could be remiss (to) not talk about all the people that support (the players), the Jerry Attaways and the Mike Barnes and the trainers, these guys over the years were very tough … I know I am forgetting people, Todd and these guys; if they worked 60,000 hours a week, (they wouldn't) get any credit for it.
"I just wanted to mention them because they mean a lot to me. They have made a big impact on my life. How many conversations in the back of the bus or in the showers before the game, sitting on the floor, you are talking to these guys about how great it is; how hard it is; how much you feel — I am grateful for the people in this building that are my friends and retiring at 38 is in some ways, you know, it sucks, you know. Because you feel like you are just in the middle of great relationships and you are doing things that — you know, I can go on and on.
"Now we get inside the circle. And that is my family, as well, as I think it is important at this time to take a minute and really put in true perspective the man that kind of walked me through as a 21-year-old kid, took me by the hand and kind of led me through some of the most dynamic, difficult, stressful, emotional times of my life and helped me through the rigors of professional football and that is Leigh Steinberg.
"Leigh, I hope that I am his greatest project because I can't imagine anyone putting him through more challenges, every contract negotiation, everything that happened in my life was unique, different, it was — it took a special person to be able to see through all of the emotions that I had and keep everyone together. I never walked into a building after a contract or after any kind of problems and not have everyone happy.
"It just was inevitable that no matter what happens, he made it that I was comfortable and he knew that that was a huge part of how I was going to be successful is to make me comfortable. I am appreciative for all of those things. In many ways, many of the things that he taught me, it is like the student becomes the master, I really had learned so much and I am appreciative even to this day, all the things, all the mine fields that he helped me avoid and even when I blew one up, that he helped me mend from. His partner Dave Dunn and Jeff Mohrad. When you are a professional athlete, you need help. You can't do it alone. I had the best.
"Now, my family … my dad is an old football player. If you asked my dad right now and he was truly honest, he'd tell me, walk over to the locker room, put the pads on, and go out and be a man. He's not going to be totally honest today so don't look for that. But he's an old football player and he loves the game. His favorite thing in the world was when they got all the games on TV and he just switched and he could see every game. He watched mine, but he watched every other one. And after every game I talked to him and he'd say: Why did you do that. I was like, I don't know. But he was very tough on me, but very loving and I am appreciative.
"I mentioned my mother who charged the field at eight years old and forever more, we put her in the upper deck because I mean, can you imagine, my mother, she gets so emotional that she literally can charge a field. I could see her grabbing the Fridge (William Perry), 'Don't hit my son.' So, obviously I love my parents and as I become a parent now and the thought of it only brings home the amazing things that Mom and Dad did, and so I want to reiterate what I am going to do the rest of my life. When I start my family I am going to work the family.
"I think family is the center and cornerstone of society and I am going to work hard on my own family. I am going to be the best father and husband that I can be and I am going to encourage and help as many people as I can. Family will be my kind of rallying zone to help people stay together; to help kids have a chance to be raised and have a chance to have some of the experiences that I have been so fortunate with.
"My brothers, they are all football players. They all played in college. They all went on to be doctors and so now they make me look dumb. But my youngest brother is in college and my sister, who is an All-American swimmer, a great athlete herself. I was the oldest and they didn't let it stop them. Their attitude was, 'Steve did (it), I will do it better.' Seems to run in the family. My love for them is immense, at this time especially.
"Obviously, my wife Barb, I waited a long time and I am just really grateful to have a chance to start my family. And in some ways starting a family now made the decision even harder because I mentioned earlier last week that I always dreamed of having my family see me play and Barb is not the greatest football fan, but she is a Steve Young fan and she got to see three wonderful games last year. To her credit she was not afraid to go for more. And so we start our family. I can't tell you how wonderful that feels at this time.
"I want to reiterate that the decision I have made settled on me — settled on me in the last couple of weeks and I really was able to finally step away and not worry about the immediate circumstances, the immediate argument for and against. It really just settled on me that this was the time and I think people will probably try to prod and poach and try to figure out exactly why that was, but I count myself as a spiritual man and I think in the long run that is the part that settled all this.
"So I made all the arguments with myself. I went back and, you know, I stretched this thing out, but I think in the end it was a way from any of the probable arguments that you all probably thought of. It just kind of settled on me. So I do it with, really, a lot of joy and I am looking forward to it.
"So people probably wonder what will I do now. Well, as I just said, we expect a child at the end of the year. That will be a major priority. For ten years I have run the Forever Young Foundation. I intend to use non-profit and use the relationships that I forged in business (and start) an endowment for the foundation. I have got two hospital projects — one that is completed. Over the years we have helped various charities. I think that that will continue and expand. And I'd like to leverage some of the things that have been going on in Silicon Valley to help promote and endow that foundation so that we can do even more.
"I have dreams of starting a school. I have dreams of starting a law foundation where disgruntled lawyers who are making too much money can come and do what they always dreamed of doing in law school, come make a true difference, to support families and kids. Ironically — and I never thought myself as a businessman — I started a business a year and a half ago and we now have 120 employees in downtown San Francisco. It is an infrastructure for retailers. A friend came up with the idea that I took. I hired a great guy from Harvard to run it and if you checked Business Week last week, we were in it, he was featured in it. I got employment stuff to worry about right now. I am management.
"So I mean, I am looking forward to intellectual challenges. There are many opportunities right here where I have been for the last 15 years in Silicon Valley, I have forged many relationships. I hope to be doing business with my friends. As many of you know, Brent Jones has come up with a great business idea. Obviously, I'm going to love doing that. I am going to try to work at enabling young small start-up businesses — I have done it once with my business; I think I know what I am doing now with the whole process; getting it started; how to do it; who to meet with; how to go about it. I will talk more about those later.
"But I think also I will be working with the Olympics. I love the idea of the Olympics. I wish I could be a bobsledder or something. But to me, the Olympics is not about the games. They are about the cultural exchange. When I was In Lillehammer, the Olympics happen in the streets. It is the people. I walked around the stands … I am going to look to help the cultural exchange and help the people of Utah see over the mountains and hopefully help the world see them. That will be something that I will enjoy.
"Anyway I think there is a couple people that I'd like to say just a short message, people that I think are really vital. First one is Denise. She doesn't speak that often. I particularly asked her to say something just for a minute because I think that I have sense that she has been here the whole time and it means a lot to me and she came appreciate; Eddie came and I appreciate him. I would just it if, for a second, Denise could say something."
