A biography for Steve Younghasn’t been written yet.
“I always say football is very unnatural sport. Nobody loves to just ram into people.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Just after I retired, Michael Vick came in. And just as background, I really thought the position had changed. I thought the dynamic pass-run, triple-threat quarterback was going to take over the league. And guys like Michael Vick and others would follow and that's what we'd do. But I learned the truth with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.”
“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.”
“If you're going to run a lot of plays, you better score a lot of points.”
“People always want to grab the negative, but that's not my reality. It comes from my dad. He cracks me up the way he always says, 'Suck it up and be a big girl,' to my sister, or 'Suck it up and be a man,' to us guys. That's what I'm about.”
“Some of the great John Wayne hero things that have ever happened in football happened because people play hurt.”
“I've come to a real understanding of the enormity of what owner entrepreneurs do in founding great businesses. They are rare and a thing of art in many ways.”
“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.”
“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.”
“As a kid, I was fearless during the day. But at nighttime, I needed to be home.”
“To play 18 years as a pro and have a great college career, it's awesome.”
“The great thing about football is that it's a game that involves so many people.”
“I've put football behind me.”
“People don't remember that Sid Gillman was my coach. He was an old crotchety guy, but he was the first one to basically say, 'You can't just run around'... I remember, he literally tied my feet up.”
“My dad's an old football player.”
“You can be an astronaut, knowing it can be super dangerous but understand intuitively what the risk issues are. Not having the same usable knowledge about the risk of football, or any line of work, doesn't work.”
“I wish I could've met my wife earlier. I do the math and I want 30 more years. I wish I'd started having kids earlier.”