Steve Young Career Biography and Statistics

Bio:
Steve Young was born on October 11, 1961, in Salt Lake City, Utah. While playing football at Greenwich High School, he was unable to pass very often due to the team’s focus on running the ball. However, this allowed Young to develop his game as a mobile quarterback, which helped him greatly throughout the rest of his career. In addition to playing football, Young also starred at both baseball and basketball while at Greenwich.

A practicing Mormon, Young played his college football at Brigham Young University (Young is also a direct descendant of Brigham himself). He struggled at first to establish himself as a quarterback, and BYU considered switching Young to defense. He worked very hard and ended up starting at QB for three outstanding years, finishing second in the Heisman race and earning First Team All-American honors his senior year. Young finished his career in 1983 with 7,733 passing yards, 56 passing touchdowns, 1,048 rushing yards, and 18 rushing touchdowns.

Young began his career with the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League (USFL). He had an unsuccessful two years in the now obsolete league before moving on to the NFL in 1984. Young was picked in the first round of the NFL’s supplemental draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Young struggled at Tampa Bay and the team ended up trading him to the San Francisco 49ers in 1987, and it was with the 49ers that Young finally found a home. After serving as a back-up to the legendary Joe Montana, Young finally received the starting job for good in 1992 and put together an impressive career. Young finished his career in 1999 a two-time Super Bowl champion, a two-time NFL MVP, seven-time Pro Bowler, and Super Bowl MVP in 1994. The highest rated passer in NFL history, Young has career totals of 33,124 passing yards, 232 passing touchdowns, 4,239 rushing yards (second all-time for QB’s), and 43 rushing touchdowns.