Younger Than Ever

The San Francisco 49ers’ season had ended. Suddenly, dramatically, disappointingly.

Another crushing loss to the Green Bay Packers. Another derailment while on track for the Super Bowl.

The day after January’s 23-10 defeat against the Packers in the NFC championship game, the third consecutive year Green Bay had eliminated San Francisco in postseason play, 49er Coach Steve Mariucci dragged himself to his office.

He hoped to sort through the rubble of the disheartening finish in peace and quiet.

What peace and quiet?

As he opened the door, Mariucci was greeted by a man pacing furiously.

His quarterback, Steve Young, was anxiously waiting for his coach, anxious to sift through the rubble himself and rebuild his hopes for the season ahead.

“He didn’t have anything better to do,” Mariucci later said. “He is going to play forever.”

Young forever young?

It certainly didn’t seem that way at the beginning of last season. When Young was knocked out of the 1997 season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because of a concussion, it seemed to be the final blow in a series of damaging hits to the head.

At least many well-wishers hoped it was. There was a cry for Young to retire while his mind was in good working order and he could use the law degree he had earned from Brigham Young in 1994.

Besides, other than having failed to beat Green Bay in three tries as a starter, what did Young have to prove? He had a 97.0 career quarterback rating, best in NFL history. He had won a Super Bowl. He is a two-time NFL player of the year and a Super Bowl MVP.

And while nobody will ever replace quarterback Joe Montana in the minds of many 49er fans, Young at least has proved to be a worthy successor.

“I wanted to see Steve end his career on his own terms,” Mariucci said. “But a lot of people thought he should retire. Outside doctors who didn’t know anything about it were throwing in their two cents. The media was throwing in its two cents.”

The only thing that made any sense was to undergo testing.

“I was scared,” Young acknowledged.

But when Dr. Joseph Lacy, a neurologist, in consultation with a neurosurgeon, gave Young the green light after an extensive exam following the Tampa Bay game, Young grabbed his helmet without hesitation.

“Steve was told that even if he received another concussion, it would not necessarily be the end,” Mariucci said. “It took a big weight off his shoulders for someone to say that. He needed the decision to be a medical decision.”

And it turned out to be an easy decision.

“I was really put at ease by the doctors,” Young said. “They said that I had had a mild concussion and that I could return to 100% with no lasting effects.”

Sitting out only a week, Young was back in the huddle for the third game of the 1997 season. But it wasn’t the same. Mariucci made sure of that. He put a tight rein on one of the best scrambling quarterbacks in NFL history. No more wild dashes down the field. No more headfirst lunges for the first-down marker with a linebacker diving in for the kill.

Young was ordered to wear a mouth guard and monitor the air pressure in his helmet. Mariucci took the quarterback sneak out of the playbook. He severely limited the number of plays that required Young to leave the protection of the pocket. And Mariucci started focusing far more on his running game.

“I felt responsible as a coach,” Mariucci said. “I felt guilty.”

Young felt frustrated. He was like a wild horse in a corral.

He would come over to Mariucci and say, with a hopeful look in his eyes, “I feel great. I’m fine.”

Mariucci would tell him, “I know you are. That’s terrific.”

Translation: Glad to hear it, but we’re not changing the playbook.

But slowly, he did.

The mouth guard and the monitoring of the helmet didn’t last long. By the 13th game, the quarterback sneak was back in. And soon Young was rolling out as in days of old, finishing the season with a quarterback rating of 104.7.

Concussion? What concussion?

“He doesn’t like to hear about it. He doesn’t like to read about it. He doesn’t like to talk about it,” Mariucci said. “He thinks it’s a non-issue.”

The bigger issue coming into this season was age. Young celebrated his 37th birthday three weeks ago. He has been battered and bruised through years of NFL contact.

How much could he have left?

As it turns out, as much as ever.

Young decided that, this season, he had to be “more aggressive,” just what a coach doesn’t want to hear from a guy with a history of head injuries.

But Mariucci has no complaints. Seven games into the 1998 season, Young, surprising even his biggest supporters, has a quarterback rating of 104.7, second in the NFC and third in the league. He has passed for 2,249 yards and 20 touchdowns, both league-leading totals, with only five interceptions.

His touchdown total through seven games exceeds his total in each of the last two seasons and equals his 1995 total.

And that’s only through the air. Mariucci has given Young back his full playbook and he is using it all, including the run option, abandoning the cocoon of the pocket to take off when the defense smothers his receivers. Young isn’t running with his old reckless abandon. He’s wiser, but just as effective. He has already gained 205 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns on the ground after having rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns all of last season.

“He can’t run as recklessly and as wild as he did,” said Bobb McKittrick, San Francisco’s offensive line coach. “He’s still among the best scramblers. But where he used to make a 49-yard run, now he slides, he goes out of bounds and he uses better judgment.”

Now come the Packers, whom the 49ers will face in Green Bay on Sunday. Young would love to finally beat his old tormentors. He knows he might find them again blocking his path to the Super Bowl in the postseason. But some of his teammates don’t necessarily relate to the 49ers’ bitter past against the Packers.

“With free agency,” Young said, “you find so many guys who don’t know about our past against them that you have to tell them about it. That’s almost a positive.

“But for me, if you keep knocking up against a team and they keep knocking you down, you tend to remember that.”

But beyond the Packers, how long does Young plan to continue knocking heads in this league?

“I really appreciate that, at my age, I can play the way I want to play,” Young said. “I don’t have a [particular] number of years in mind. I only want to to play if I can continue to get better. And I think I can.”

Not in the opinion of tight end Irv Smith.

“He’s as close to perfect as you can be,” Smith said. “He seems like a guy in his 20s, like the Energizer bunny.”

But Young remains obsessed with perfection.

“A lot of it is theoretical,” he said. “Playing quarterback is like trying to catch a tiger. Just when you think you have him caged, he gets away. You’re never perfect, but that is the challenge.”

And that’s what keeps him forever young.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

It’s Not Easy Beating Green

A look at Steve Young’s typical game against the Packers, and against the rest of the NFL

Games

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 153

Young vs. Packers: 5

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Attempts

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 24

Young vs. Packers: 22

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Comp.

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 16

Young vs. Packers: 12

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Comp.%

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 66.7

Young vs. Packers: 54.6

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Yards

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 197

Young vs. Packers: 134

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TD

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 1.4

Young vs. Packers: 0.4

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Interceptions

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 0.6

Young vs. Packers: 1.2

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Avg. Gain

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 8.21

Young vs. Packers: 6.09

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Rating

Young vs. Rest of NFL: 100.9

Young vs. Packers: 56.3

Researched by HOUSTON MITCHELL / LOS ANGELES TIMES

Trying to Catch a Dolphin

A look at how the quarterbacks’ numbers compare through the first seven games of each season.

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Quarterback Year P PC Pct Yards Avg TD Int Rating Steve Young 1998 270 165 61.1 2,249 8.33 20 5 104.7 Dan Marino 1984 211 142 67.3 2,074 9.83 20 4 122.8

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A look at how Steve Young’s projected final numbers compare with Marino’s 1984 season:

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Quarterback Year P PC Pct Yards Avg TD Int Rating Steve Young 1998 617 377 61.1 5,141 8.33 46 11 105.2 Dan Marino 1984 564 362 64.2 5,084 9.01 48 17 108.0

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