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September 5, 2025 6 mins

Football legend Steve Young looks back on his time in the USFL and on the 49ers. He details his $40 million deal with the USFL’s LA Express and joining the San Francisco 49ers as a backup quarterback to Joe Montana. He also remembers the “interesting” way he handled his checks in his early 49ers days.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey guys, Graham here. It's Friday, which means we get
to share with you another one ofour most popular clips from a
past interview this week, Steve Young.
The clip you're about to hear istrending on our Instagram right
now. Hope you enjoy.
The Express. It's the early 80s.

(00:21):
You sign a $40 million deal between the guaranteed money and
the annuity it was supposed to pay out till you were what age?
I think 60 and so, and they added up all the annuity
payments for all those years andthen called it $40 million.
At the time, Wayne Gretzky was making $2,000,000 and Magic
Johnson was making $2,000,000, and then I was making $40

(00:43):
million. That's how it was promoted.
And it was worldwide. Every town I went into to play
in the USFL, there was a sign 40,000,000.
You suck. You know you're terrible.
And it's a great story. My mom, they drove down from
Connecticut to Washington, DC tosee the USFL game and I did
someone on the field fumble or something and a chant started in

(01:03):
the corner of the stadium where she was 40 million down the
drain. And the chant started to take
the whole, the whole stadium, 40million down the drain.
And my mom, my dad tells the story.
My mom's like she stands up and everyone around her, you know,
the guys are like, and she goes,but it's an annuity.
It's not, it's not 40 million. It's just an annuity.
That's why he sucks. It's not, you know, she didn't

(01:24):
say that part, but it's just so funny that that my life again,
how fast can we spend Steve? Now?
Let's give him, let's say it's $40 million and have him try to
answer for that in a world whereI didn't really want to answer
for a dollar. Take me into the room where it's
you and your agent, Lee Steinberg, actually negotiating

(01:45):
that deal with the Goldenberg. Was the owner?
Yeah. So he, Goldenberg, was the real
estate developer. He takes me down to the
Transamerica building where Lee and I were going to negotiate
the final parts of the contract.Thought it was done.
And, and so we go upstairs and we're getting done.
And my dad is, you know, he's a lawyer, so he wants to be part

(02:05):
of it. And he says, hey, I haven't read
it. And Lee says, look, I don't know
if we have time to read it. You know, he's got a birthday
party and there's a big hoopla here.
And he's like, look, I'm not I'mhaving my son sign unless I read
it. So then Lee has to tell him,
like Mr. Oldenberg, we're going to have a little delay here.
You know, we have to. So the delay goes on an hour,
hour and a half. And we're sitting in the
conference room, just sitting there, and Bill Omer comes in

(02:28):
and he was pissed. And he's like, he takes a wad of
hundreds, like as far as big as you can hold.
He goes, you want more money. It's not what this is all about.
You want more money and throws it at me, hits me in the chest
with the money, like flying money.
And I remember thinking, I've never seen so much money in my
life, you know, And I'm like trying to pick it up.
And he storms out and has us escorted out of the building

(02:50):
with security without the contract being done because my
dad want to make sure that you read it.
And yeah, that was the richest Iever was right there.
And you, like you almost took a swing at it.
Oh. That's right.
So I'm Mr. Oldenberg. You've got to calm down.
And he tries to. You want to calm down?
He tries to. I'm like, hey, you, you need to
because he wasn't the biggest, you know, he's not a large man.

(03:13):
And I said, you need to, you need to not, you need to calm
down because if this is you're not, this is not going to go
well, you know, that's how bad it got.
Whether with the Express or the Early in your 49ers days, you
had an interesting way of handling your checks.
Well, I. Think it's PTSD from the $40
million thing. So just so tell about the call

(03:35):
you got from the then 49ers owner.
It's nearing the end of the yearand he's trying to close out his
books. This is again a larger story.
I'm in Tampa Bay. I'm I'm was the number one draft
pick in the supplemental draft for the Bucs.
And we go 2 and 14 were the number one draft choice.
And the new coach, Ray Perkins tells me, I don't like lefties,

(03:57):
I don't like scramblers. Look, I was an oddity back then.
Today's game I would be really cool.
But back then I was, I was odd and I'd made a relationship with
Hugh Culverhouse, the owner, andthey traded me the Saint Louis
Cardinals. And he called and reported says,
hey, you've been traded this. I'm like, Oh no, that's the
other team. That's when 2 and 14 is
terrible. I called the owner and said, Mr.

(04:18):
Culverhouse, we had a relationship.
You said I was your your quarterback for life.
And now I'm getting traded goes I'm so sorry.
Yeah, you're right. I'll mix that trade and you have
a week to go figure out what youwant to do.
And Bill Walsh was the first call and Bill said, who thinks
that? I that just shocked me that I'd
never heard my whole life. I love lefties, which I'd never
heard before. And I love people that can run
around because I think there's agreat benefit to it.

(04:41):
And then he told me that Joe Montana had two back surgeries
and, you know, I don't know whenhe's going to play again.
So I come to the 49ers and I'm have the sense that maybe I'm
going to play. And the first practice, Joe
Montana runs out and he's looks great.
And I turn to Bill Walsh and I go, he's not hurt.

(05:04):
And Bill's like, you know, sorryabout that.
So that started a six year odyssey for both of us, for the
three of us that, you know, was,you know, pretty dramatic.
And I think part of that drama was when I wasn't playing, the
one thing I didn't want to do issit around.
I'd rather go to law school thensit and watch.

(05:26):
This is this is the immaturity and stupidity of me.
I was like, I'm not going to cash my checks.
You know what? I'm just going to let them sit
in the drawer because I'm not playing, so it doesn't matter.
And I was renting a little room from Harris Barton, my teammate
and I would. And I always went back to law
school in the offseason. And Carmen Policy called me and

(05:47):
said general manager, the team and said, hey, look, you're
screwing up the taxes. Where's the checks, man?
You know, we got a file. It's the end of it's April.
We got a file. And I forgot I left them in the
drawer in Harris's house. So I called Harris.
I go, Harris, would you go into my room and just see if they're
all in there? And Harris, he tells a funny
story. He goes in there, He's like 16
checks, you know, pretty big checks.

(06:08):
She was like, what are you doingman for 1st?
And I go do me a favor. You remember for how much?
You know, you were you was good money, man. $4 million, she just
said, sitting in your. Dress report.
So I said, do me a favor, man. You know, would you gather them
and, and send them to me becauseI got AI got a back then.
There was no, you know, he couldn't take a picture of it or
anything. And so he sent them to me.

(06:29):
We've got them. I finally gave in because of the
audit for the 49ers. Reluctantly.
Gave in Graham. Reluctantly.
Before you leave, here's a quickshameless plug.
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