He knows what his father would say. LeGrande Young would tell his oldest son, Steve, that the recognition was fine, but now what?
So your 49er teammates voted you an award emblematic of inspiration and courage? So, the father would advise, get back on the practice field and show us you're worthy.That's the way LeGrande Young was. And is. Except you'd better not call him LeGrande. "If you call him that," said Steve, "he'll hit you. So everyone calls him Grit."
And what we'll call Grit's boy is recipient of the 1992 Len Eshmont Award.
The judgment was made by his peers, the guys who were tugging off uniforms or limping to the showers last Sunday in the locker room at the training complex.
They didn't consider Young's time in the 40 or the spiral of his forward passes. They reflected on his work ethic and leadership and - well, to steal LeGrande Young's nickname - his grit.
John Taylor won last year, and Kevin Fagan and Charles Haley the year before that. Quarterbacks win too, but infrequently.
The Eshmont Award, named in honor of a member of the original 1946 49er team, invariably goes to people who have mud on their jersies and blood on their faces, people such as Charlie Kruger or Michael Carter or Keena Turner.
True, Dwight Clark and Jerry Rice have been winners, but in 35 previous years the only quarterbacks to be voted the Eshmont were Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie and, twice, yes, Joe Montana. Now there is a fourth: Steve Young.
"I'm bowled over by it," said Young.
He had been notified a few minutes earlier by coach George Seifert. A normal Sunday the team would have been in a stadium someplace. But the 49ers had played Saturday, struggling past the Tampa Bay Bucs 21-14 at Candlestick Park, with Young throwing three touchdown passes.
On this afternoon, it was team meetings, a brief workout and the Eshmont vote. And a surprise for Young, standing there in a T-shirt after a distance run with Montana, Steve Bono, Mike Cofer and QB coach Mike Shanahan.
"No one knows how much we go through, not even the people who hang around here every day," said 30-year-old Steve Young. Was that an oblique dig at the journalists? Why not? One writer, from the other San Francisco daily, exactly a year ago, December 1991, had insisted, "It's time to trade Young." Fortunately, the 49ers did not.
Instead, with Montana still ailing, Steve took control. He leads NFL quarterbacks. The 49ers lead the NFL in victories. Surely his teammates found a comparison between one category and the other.
"My dad would take a lot of heart in this," said Young. "Because he always was big on relationships. He always told me, `If you don't want to be part of the team, then go play golf or tennis.' He was big on playing your part. He made me stick with things."
Indeed. Grit Young, who had played football at Brigham Young in the 1950s, eventually became a corporate lawyer in Manhattan. The family lived in Greenwich, Conn., where Steve came of age and came under Grit's discipline.
"He was the kind of guy," said Steve of Grit, "that when I'd wake up Saturday mornings, say 9 a.m., which is pretty early for a teen-ager, and I was supposed to, you know, mow the lawn, well, the lawnmower would be going. He would want me to come sprinting out so he could say, `I couldn't wait all day.' The old `I delivered papers in the snow' business. He wanted you to do everything perfect. And to keep you humble."
There were four boys in the Young family. Mike was the No. 2 son, and, for a while, Steve's adversary. "Steve was really an uptight kid," Mike told Deseret News columnist Lee Benson. "Everything mattered. He was the kind of kid who, if somebody teased him about liking a fat girl, he wouldn't go to school for a week."
Everything mattered. When Steve followed his father to BYU he was eighth string, on the JV. When at the close of that freshman year, 1980, the coaches said they would switch him from quarterback to defensive back, Young went back to Greenwich and told Grit he was going to quit.
"You can quit," Grit supposedly responded, "but you can't live here."
It's understood there's a wedge between Young and Montana, the two quarterbacks taking their years of competition personally. And next Monday against the Detroit Lions, Young must step aside, if only briefly, for Montana to again get the snaps and - you know it - the ringing cheers.
"I know they'll be cheering for Joe," said Young. "I understand that. I hope the people understand that I understand."
Montana gracefully assented. "The Eshmont Award tells you what your teammates think about you," said Joe. "It's a great honor. Steve deserved it. He's had a great year."