Glory Days for Michael Young, Plus Dose of Reality : Pro football: Former Ram wide receiver has emerged as a key player for the Broncos, but he has had to deal with a serious illness in the family.

The defender falls down. You’re suddenly wide open. You break downfield and look back for the pass. It’s in the air. It’s coming down on the wrong side but you turn around and catch it.

There’s no one between you and the end zone. The defender closes in from behind, attempts a diving tackle, but you break loose and score.

It’s a 70-yard touchdown pass play.

Your team wins and is on the way to the Super Bowl. You are one of the stars. O.J. Simpson interviews you on national television in the locker room.

It’s the things dreams are made of.

“I’ve had a lot of dreams like that,” said Michael Young. “I just never thought I’d live it.”

Live it he did. His 70-yard touchdown reception was one of the biggest plays in the Denver Broncos’ 37-21 victory over the Cleveland Browns in the AFC championship game.

Young also caught a pass for a 53-yard gain to set up a touchdown, almost scoring on that play as well.

“I still don’t think it’s all sunk in yet,” he said.

Young, a Ram reject a year ago, is in Sunday’s Super Bowl, and coming off the biggest game of his five-year pro career as a wide receiver.

After the game, as Young was walking off the field, someone from ABC’s “Good Morning America” came up to him to make arrangements to have him appear on the show.

When Young got to the locker room, the Broncos’ public relations director told him “CBS This Morning” wanted him to appear on that show.

As things developed, the representatives from the two shows got in a semi-argument.

“Can you believe it?” Young said. “The networks were fighting over me.”

“Good Morning America” won out, and a crew showed up at Young’s home in suburban Denver the next morning at 3:15 a.m.

“I had only gotten two hours of sleep,” Young said. “Jill (Young’s wife) and I got home from the game about 7 p.m., and I had to call my family.”

Young’s family is a big one. Young’s parents, his brother, his sister and most of his relatives live in Visalia, Calif.

“I made at least 10 calls,” Young said. “I was on the phone for about three hours.

“Finally, I made myself a drink and Jill and I got to bed at about 10:30. But I woke up at 12:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was just too wound up. Then the people from ‘Good Morning America’ arrived.”

Young’s state of euphoria didn’t last long.

That morning a call came from Visalia with bad news. Jill’s father, Don Britten, who has been battling cancer, had taken a turn for the worse and had been hospitalized.

The Youngs and their daughter Christine, who turns 2 on Feb. 3, were on the next plane to Fresno, which is 45 miles north of Visalia.

Britten, 58, a retired veterinarian, is more than just a father-in-law to Young. The two have known each other since Michael and Jill met in junior high, and a close relationship developed over the years.

Britten, while marlin fishing in Mexico eight years ago, came down with hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver.

The disease worsened to a point where only a liver transplant would save Britten’s life. Arrangements were made with the UCLA Medical Center a little over two years ago.

While he waited for a compatible liver to be found, which took more than two months, Britten and his wife Wannie stayed with Michael and Jill at their home in Mission Viejo. They had to stay in Southern California because they couldn’t be more than 1 1/2 hours from the hospital. Visalia is about 3 1/2 hours away.

After the transplant, Britten was put on anti-rejection drugs. Without them, Britten’s body would reject the liver and he would die. But taking them meant risking other diseases. That’s one of the side effects of the drugs. One’s resistence is torn down.

Cancer first showed up in Britten’s colon. Chemotherapy was out because of the anti-rejection drugs. The cancer spread and eventually settled into the bones.

Young said Britten was in and out of consciousness when he visited him last week.

“His condition is getting worse,” Young said, a sadness detected in his voice. “Our prayers are with him. He’s really had a tough time. If things don’t take a turn for the better, the one positive is that he’ll be going to a place where he won’t be sick any more.”

Young returned to Denver last Thursday and went straight from the airport to practice. Jill stayed in Visalia, but is planning to join her husband in New Orleans on Thursday, flying on a special charter from Denver with the rest of the Bronco wives.

For Young, his father-in-law’s condition has provided a heavy dose of reality.

“Something like this makes you realize the Super Bowl is just a game,” he said. “There are so many other things that are so important.”

That Young, who played at UCLA and was drafted by the Rams in the sixth round in 1985, is even in the Super Bowl is somewhat of an amazing story.

He played for the Rams for four seasons, spending the last two on the sidelines. He had only four catches during his third season and two his fourth. He finished the 1988 season on injured reserve. The Rams had put him there to make room for Ron Brown, who decided to come out of retirement.

Young considered attempting to come back for a fifth season with the Rams even though the team chose not to protect him under the new Plan B rules.

Under Plan B, a team can protect 37 players. The rest are free to sign with any team.

Young talked to Coach John Robinson, who suggested he concentrate on special teams play.

“I’m not that type of player who enjoys running down the field and hitting someone,” Young said. “I don’t mind being hit, but I don’t like to hit.

“The Rams had four receivers. I don’t know what I would have done had Ron Brown decided to retire again. Maybe I would have come back. I don’t know.”

As it was, Young, who serves as his own agent, shopped himself around. He went to Denver for a tryout, and the people there were particularly impressed with his speed. He ran the 40 in 4.5.

“Because I’m white, people stereotype me as being a possession receiver,” Young said. “That means I can’t run fast enough to go deep but I can catch the ball on short-yardage situations.

“I guess that’s not so bad. At least people say I can catch the ball. It’d be worse if they said I was slow and had bad hands, too.

“But anybody who’s ever played with me knows I have speed, and that’s what counts.”

Young’s statistics make a pretty good case for him being miscast as only a possession receiver. He caught 22 passes for 402 yards during the regular season. That’s an average of 18.3 yards per catch.

The Broncos’ Ricky Nattiel also averaged 18.3 yards, but he had only 10 receptions. Steve Sewell, who had 25 receptions, averaged 16.6, and Vance Johnson, who caught 76 passes, averaged 14.4. Mark Jackson caught 28 passes and averaged 15.9.

Young averaged 61.5 yards per catch in the AFC title game. That’s pretty tough to beat.

Young’s speed is something he inherited from his father Bill, a 49.9 second, 440 man at Tulare High in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, which is back when a 49.9 time was really something.

Bill Young wasn’t the only track star at Tulare. Bob Mathias, who went on to win two Olympic decathlons, also went to Tulare, although he was two years ahead of Young.

When Michael, the youngest of Bill and Diane Young’s three children, was a youngster, his father started a club track team for boys in the Visalia area.

When Michael was 10, he ran the 100-yard dash in 11.9, which for his age was one of the fastest times in the nation.

Michael was also a Little League baseball star and went on to become a star in both football and baseball at Visalia’s Mt. Whitney High.

He also was on the track team briefly as a senior, and without much training or conditioning, ran a 9.7 in the 100.

In football, Young was a prep All-American, helping Mt. Whitney win the San Joaquin Valley championship in 1978.

Mt. Whitney beat cross-town rival Redwood, 21-7, in the championship game.

“This may sound a little strange, but just playing in that game is still my biggest thrill in sports,” said Young, even though the AFC title game is fresh in his mind.

“You know how they say the hair on the back of your neck stands up and chills run down your spine. Well, that’s what I felt during the pregame introductions when we played Redwood.

“I have never had that feeling since. Maybe I will Sunday.”