One Win To Freedom Young Needs Victory To Kill Ghost Of Montana
There was a whole lot of monkeying around after the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC championship last Sunday in the city by the bay.
Almost every Niner quoted afterward seemed to say the same thing: “This got the monkey off Steve’s back.”
Russ Francis, former teammate and still a friend of Steve Young, is quick to differ.
“I didn’t see Steve saying any of that,” offered Francis, now living in Oregon, where he is completing his college degree, 20 years after being drafted by the Patriots, and hosting a nightly sports radio talk show. “The monkey isn’t off yet. The only way he gets rid of that is by winning a Super Bowl. The NFC championship doesn’t do it.
“The Super Bowl will.”
Francis, who went to the Niners in 1982 and was still there when Young came via trade in 1987, is surprised and pleased with the quarterback’s success.
“When he first came, he didn’t have the first clue on how to read a defense,” Francis said. “He didn’t know what he was looking at and he was frustrating to play with. When you’re a pass receiver and you’re running downfield, when you look back, you are looking for the ball to come from a certain spot. With Steve, you didn’t know where it was coming from because he was all over the place. Same way with the offensive linemen blocking for him. He drove those guys nuts. They never knew where he was going to be behind them because he was scrambling around so much.”
Young came into the worst possible situation for a quarterback aspiring to greatness. One of the best ever, Joe Montana, was entrenched as the leader of the team with all those Super Bowl titles.
“It was difficult at first for Steve, and it probably still was until Joe left,” said Francis. “As long as Joe was around, it was going to be his team. He earned it. Now this is Steve’s team and he has earned it.
“Near the start of the year, I watched a game they played in Kansas City against Joe, and Joe took them apart. After the game, Steve made the comment that it was still like the teacher and the student. He was like a whipped puppy with his tail between his legs. But to his credit, he kept his wits about him. Joe just had one of those days that Joe can have. There has never been anyone like him for seeing the field and playing with such poise in great games. That’s the one thing Steve still has left to do. He has to prove he can win the biggest game, and that’s not the NFC Championship Game. It’s the Super Bowl.”
Francis, who is still a big 49ers fan and friendly with some of the veterans, feels his old team is being set up for trouble.
“This is like a big trap. Everyone has it so there is no way they can lose. They beat San Diego easily last month in San Diego. The oddsmakers are making them the biggest Super Bowl favorite ever. The team is going down early (this Sunday). The danger is that those guys are going to make it one big party, and if they do, it will be a major mistake. I don’t care what happened the last game. San Diego can play defense, and as long as a team can play defense at that level, it can win. There is no assurance that Steve won’t start throwing some bad passes or guys start dropping the ball here and there. This is what can happen if you are not completely focused.
“Early in his career, Steve’s biggest failing was the bigger the game got, the more he tried to do himself. Instead of moving the ball around and getting everyone involved, he took it upon himself to try to win the game. I saw some of that last Sunday with all of that running, but not like it was before. If he spreads the ball around in the Super Bowl, I think he will do much better.”