AND HE DOESN’T SHOPAT MERVYN’S EITHERAnyone who...

AND HE DOESN’T SHOP

AT MERVYN’S EITHER

Anyone who thinks two concussions in a three-week period are cause for Steve Young to think of retirement should consider this:

In Sunday’s 19-16 overtime victory over Washington at RFK Stadium, Young completed 20 consecutive passes, second most in NFL history. More important, he survived a helmet-to-helmet hit with the Redskins’ Stanley Richard and a kick in the shin that hurt so much he asked that backup Elvis Grbac start warming up.

“He was Bronko Nagurski out there,” Coach George Seifert said.

That’s an apt analogy.

Young was a full-service quarterback, passing, taking hits, scrambling, and running late after being tentative early. He ran four times for 25 yards in the victory.

His health?

“I feel great,” he said afterward. “As good as I’ve felt all year.”

But just as important was his attitude.

“I love football,” he said. “Playing under a gray sky in a stadium like RFK, the stands bouncing, the chill in the air. That’s what you play football for. I just wanted to have some fun.”

That’s also the attitude that makes him indispensable to the 49ers.

San Francisco has played two other overtime games against winning teams this year and lost both, to Green Bay and Dallas. Grbac was the quarterback in both games.

With Young, whose presence seems to lift his teammates, San Francisco won in overtime.

He completed 20 consecutive passes until he threw the ball away as he was about to get sacked on the final play of regulation.

After the game, he was told that his 20 straight left him only two short of the NFL record, which is held by Joe Montana, his predecessor and sometime antagonist with San Francisco.

“If I’d known that,” he said. “I’d have let myself get sacked.”

Then he smiled.

“Just kidding,” he said.

COACHES? WE DON’T

NEED ANY COACHES

The second half of the Baltimore-Jacksonville game began with members of the Baltimore coaching staff stuck in an elevator. They were attempting to return to their press box seats and didn’t make it until midway through the third quarter.

The Ravens scored a touchdown without the coaches watching, their only offensive touchdown of the game.

--Compiled by HOUSTON MITCHELL