YOUNG OLDER, WISER : But 49er Backup Is in His Prime, Needs to Play

A few minutes into Steve Young’s last championship game appearance, at Tempe, Ariz., a truck driver in Los Angeles was heading toward the airport with orders to tear the uniforms off a team’s back if it decided to return home later that night.

Luckily, the Los Angeles Express lost the 1984 Western Conference title game to George Allen’s desert rats, the Arizona Outlaws, and avoided the embarrassment of advancing to one league’s version of a Super Bowl with its equipment confiscated, locked in storage because of payments past due.

Not even Steve Young believes he could have played the United States Football League’s title game that year without a helmet.

“I’d love to know who’s wearing our pants now,” Young said this week. “Somebody’s probably dyed them.”

Whenever Young gets a slight case of the blues, and he has one now because the San Francisco 49ers plan to start Sunday’s NFC championship game without him, he wonders what became of his old uniform pants.

Every quarterback in controversy needs a release.

Mike Tomczak admitted seeking counsel when his situation in Chicago became unbearable. Well, for 2 seasons, Steve Young leaned back on a couch known as the Express, a sporting aberration that blipped off football’s radar screen in 1985.

Young, remember, was supposed to save the USFL. Instead, he realized all too soon that he and his hyper-inflated, over-publicized contract did far more harm to the league than good. Young admitted once in a moment of guilt that he may have indeed “ruined football” before his 23rd birthday.

“Maybe in the long run, it’ll be the thing that will make me handle any situation that comes along,” Young said this week of his USFL experience. “Because I don’t think there’s anything I haven’t seen. Well, maybe the Super Bowl’s the only thing I haven’t seen yet. And maybe I’ll see that next week.

“I’m a little better person for it, if you’re looking at it in those terms. How can you not learn about yourself, about people, about politics, business, sports? I’ve seen it all. Well, not all, but I feel like I’ve seen a lot.”

Yet, nothing previously seen or felt compares to the Angst Young is experiencing now--playing backup to the great Joe Montana. Not Express owner Bill Oldenburg poking Young in the chest with his stubby index finger, or the water company shutting off the Express’ spigots, or Young’s playing running back in his last USFL game.

“Of all the things I’ve been through, watching is the worst,” he said. “Because at least then you were playing. You could go out and compete.”

The subject of Young’s life, of course, must always be broached with perspective. He remains one of the sporting world’s richest and most eligible bachelors, his latest engagement having collapsed at the last moment.

Young’s financial gatherings are legendary. He escaped the USFL with a cool $4 million stashed into his faded blue jeans for less than 2 seasons’ work, then quickly signed another deal with Tampa Bay of the NFL for $5.4 million over 6 years.

All that said, money and Steve Young have never been comfortable partners. Money prefers silk in its shirts. Young fancies the ones with alligators. Money drives a Mercedes. Young squeezed 270,000 miles out of his family’s 1965 Oldsmobile before it finally died last year of natural causes. Young has since purchased a Jeep--a demonstrator floor model. It was less expensive.

Young has always seemed more introspective than material, and more pressing than a lifetime of riches at the moment is a daily and delicate battle for the starting quarterback job with the 32-year-old Montana, who has recognized Young’s threat to his throne and seized the moment.

“I think he’s made Joe that much more competitive,” 49er Coach Bill Walsh said of Young. “Joe knows he’s got a great talent right alongside of him.”

Thus far, Montana has held off the charge. In 1987, subbing for an oft-injured Montana, who was returning from back surgery, Young finished with a stunning quarterback rating of 120.8, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions. Good enough to beat out Jay Schroeder, maybe, but not Montana.

In last season’s divisional playoff game against Minnesota, Young was summoned from the bench to replace the struggling Montana with the 49ers trailing, 27-10. Young nearly made it a game, completing 12 of 17 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 72 yards.

Some thought the quarterback torch had been passed, considering Montana’s age and injuries. Young figured his time had come.

“I feel I’m coming into the main years of my career and that it’s important that I play,” Young said. “I think Bill knows that. So we need to take a look at some of that. That’s the bottom line. To stand there and watch is . . . “

Killing you?

“Yeah.”

As it turns out, the anticipated quarterback controversy of 1988 developed only in the media, Walsh contends. A fit Montana was always going to be his starter. The problem this year, of course, has been determining how fit Montana is.

Walsh has handled Montana with care, replacing him with Young when he thought the situation required it. Montana fought battles this season with bruised ribs, a sore back and a form of dysentery that cut 10 pounds from his already slender frame.

The situation wasn’t an easy for Young, who was thrown into games against the New York Giants, Rams and Minnesota Vikings. Young completed 54 of 101 passes for 680 yards this season with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He also rushed for 184 yards on 27 carries.

“Joe’s always on the edge,” Young said of Montana’s physical condition. “Always on the edge.”

The 49ers, in fact, would not be appearing in Sunday’s title game had it not been for Young’s 49-yard touchdown scramble Oct. 30, a dazzling, spinning, lurching last-minute run for glory that beat the Vikings, 24-21.

But Young isn’t in this business for cameo roles.

“I sure try to play perfect when I’m in there, because I know I need to overcome his greatness,” Young said of Montana. “Hopefully, I’ve pushed him in some ways to make him a greater player.”

In recent weeks, Young has admitted to walking on eggs when it comes to this subject. How do you say you’re better than Joe Montana? You don’t.

Also, considering Montana’s fragility, Young knows how close he always is to the starting lineup. The Giants knocked Montana out cold in a 1986 playoff game. The Chicago Bears may do the same Sunday.

“Every time I start to say how frustrating this is, I say, ‘OK, but this Sunday, you may have to take the team to the championship,’ ” Young said. “You tell yourself to stop, forget complaining, and get ready to play.”

Young also knows he must walk a delicate line when it comes to Montana, a hero of the first order in San Francisco. Young is an admirer of Montana but, like any great athlete, also of himself. He isn’t shy about going head to head with a football legend.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I felt I was making headway. I look at it like he’s had all the opportunities this year and I’ve had to come off the bench a little disorganized and have still been capable of putting some good games together. I felt like if I’d gotten all the opportunities, we’d be in the same place.”

Montana and Young both recognize that their time is running out. Montana’s place in history is etched, though. Young’s is not.

Young turned 27 in November and can’t take too many more years on the bench, especially since he relies almost as much on his legs as his arm.

“I’ve had to use my legs a lot because I have to go in and make things happen,” he said. “I’ve got to go in and do something big, or the comparisons (with Montana) eat you up. Luckily, I have my legs to help me make some plays that can help close the gap a little bit.

“But if we’re going to get into a competition where I’ve got to find every guy on the field, when I don’t play very much, I’m at a disadvantage. My prime is the next 4 or 5 years. That’s why I’m very anxious--with a big A. I don’t think my psyche can take this much longer. It’s just too hard.”

Young said he is not requesting a trade. He considers playing for the 49ers under Walsh a perfect environment for his skills. Young and agent Leigh Steinberg knew the risks involved when the trade from Tampa Bay to San Francisco was made before the 1987 season.

At the time, though, Montana’s future was questionable, because he had undergone major back surgery in 1986. Walsh needed Young. And Young needed out of Tampa.

Now, Young is faced with either beating out a sound Montana outright for the job--an unlikely occurrence--or waiting for a legend to retire. But when will that be? Next year? The year after?

Walsh said that Young’s future is with the 49ers, though he hasn’t gotten around to the details.

“His time will come, we know that,” Walsh said. “He’ll have a great career, and has had one, but he’s a real man about this, a gentleman, believe me. Because I don’t think his situation has been accounted for (well) by the press. He has a lot of great football ahead of him. And it will be soon, and he will be a premiere quarterback in the NFL.”

Still, Young must sometimes wrestle with the decision he made back in March of 1984, when he spurned the NFL.

Young chose the road less traveled and now must wonder whether it has made all the difference in the world. Had Young signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, instead of the Express, he’d likely have been an established starter in the NFL by now. Instead, he toiled in Los Angeles and Tampa during a 4-year venture some might describe as an athletic waste of talent.

But those are the lessons life teaches.

“When you’re 21 or 22 . . . I was very immature,” he said. “It was an interesting decision. It was an interesting chapter in my life. I’d like a few more where some good stuff happens.”