49ers’ Young Uses Head At All Times

A measurement of Steve Young’s progress as a quarterback and leader:

He used to lose his head.

Now he loses his helmet.

He was a klutz, now he’s a genius.

On the San Francisco 49ers’ first possession against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday night, third and 10 at the Chargers 19, Young dropped to pass and tried to duck under the flying rush of safety Rodney Harrison.

Harrison plucked Young’s helmet off as he flew past. Young, instead of doing the intelligent thing you might expect from a law-school graduate, like kneeling down or running out of bounds, took off and ran the ball into the middle of the Chargers’ defense, picked up 9 yards and a fan club.

Running the football in the NFL without a helmet is not like braving the freeway without a seat belt. It’s like braving the freeway without a car. Wouldn’t be prudent.

On the 49ers’ sideline, linebackers Gary Plummer and Ken Norton watched Young do his hatless thing and high-fived one another.

Stirring from their preseason stupor, the 49ers revved up for a 17-6 win, and gave the first hint of the summer, the first faint glimmer, that this is a team that won a Super Bowl last January and might try to make a run at another one.

“What jacked us up was Steve Young,” Plummer said. “We saw that and we knew the offense was fired up. We watched Emmitt (Smith of the Cowboys Sunday), we saw Emmitt was jacked up. When we saw Steve, we knew our offense was jacked up, and Ken and I said, ‘I guess it’s time we started stepping up the defense.”’

How does Young dream up these inspirational moments? Last season he helped turn the 49ers around by standing on the sidelines and screaming vile curses at coach George Seifert after being taken out of a blowout against the Eagles.

Now the hat trick.

Young said he doesn’t expect Seifert to put that play into the 49ers’ playbook.

In fact, Young said, “I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m going to take some serious flack from my teammates.”

But do you get the impression the 49ers are sold on Young as their field and spiritual leader? They want to put heavy meaning into everything he does.

The 49ers are famous for their finesse, they are known the world over for their playbook that is trimmed in lace, they are admired for their their cool precision.

But don’t forget they are still a football team, fueled by emotion, and when they see their pretty-boy quarterback stick his million-dollar, helmetless head into a very dangerous place just for the heck of it, they respond.

It’s a kid’s game, and when you can strip away the structure, take a moment to do something crazy and stupid, you rally a more visceral side of your teammates.

Last season, it was Young’s tantrum in an embarrassing loss to the Eagles, and Deion Sanders’ on-going theatrics, and Jerry Rice’s white-hot intensity in pursuit of records - it was those kinds of things that took the 49ers out of the ordinary and into another world of performance.

This season, who knows what will pop up, but Young’s scramble was a start.

Not that you can draw a lot of meaning from a practice game, but if you’re a 49ers fan, you would like to see your team show a tiny bit of animalism sometime during the exhibition season, just to let you know they’re back from vacation.

“We had been following the lines in our playbook, but we weren’t getting a lot of emotion going,” Young said.

Not that the 49ers are now humming along like last year’s machine. Part of the problem is they are trying hard to hold back, to keep from dipping too deeply into their bag of tricks and giving away too much during meaningless games.

“Probably 35 percent of our offense is in right now,” said fullback William Floyd. “We just need a little time.”

They certainly didn’t give away any rushing-game secrets Sunday, gaining 93 yards, with starting running back Derek Loville struggling for 10 on five carries.

And Young fumbled a snap, threw an interception and underthrew at least one other pass, all during his short stint, three series, before he gave way to Elvis Grbac.

Maybe Young’s naked-headed dash will ultimately go down as a silly moment for the NFL blooper video. But Sunday night it seemed to get the 49ers off their duff.