Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young will never be as big as Mickey Mouse, he told the Bakersfield Business Conference Saturday.
Young discovered this when he rode on a float in a parade at Disneyland wih Jerry Rice and Mickey. After the parade, the three of them got off the float and saw two children sitting on a step looking bored. But then the younger child looked up and with eyes wide yelled, “Mickey Mouse!”
“He saw his hero, Mickey Mouse. He’d never seen him in the flesh,” Young said. “But his older brother held him back and said, `You can’t get near him, those two big guys won’t let you.’ But I want you to know that no matter how big you get, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, you will never, and I mean never be as big as Mickey Mouse.”
A player for 30 years, he said and has found that football is a metaphor for life. It is also fun to watch.
“It’s the greatest thing to watch,” he said. “Watch how people react. Football is the greatest laboratory for understanding human interaction.”
Young described the chaos of the football field during a game. As quarterback, he had to call the plays but sometimes he would not be heard due to the noise of the crowd.
“The play that was all figured out doesn’t matter,” he said. “It turns to complete chaos. Complete chaos. It is unbelieveable how much success you have in such chaotic situations.”
He said that it is important that the players understand each other and interact with one another. They learn to trust one another so they can play well together.
“(Winning the game) is a mystery but it is also fundamentally centered in being together,” he said. “I think it’s the same for families, I think it’s the same for football teams and I think it’s the same for businesses. It’s the same for everybody. The more you understand each other, the more you spend time together, the more you see where everyone is coming from. We were a really great team in chaotic situations.”
Young attributed his success on the field to learning accountability. He also learned that by throwing 202 interceptions, he said. Six interceptions were repeated after the first interception.
“Gratefully, I never threw it a third time in a row,” he said. “Every organization from families to businesses to football teams needs ultimate accountability. We need an atomsphere of accountability. With an atmosphere of no accountability there will be a breakdown every time and there will be no success.”
Another problem Young faced on the field was not being able to see an open receiver. He decided that he better start seeing the receivers, but he realized he needed faith.
“I know where Jerry Rice is, we’ve practiced it. Even though I couldn’t see him, I know where he is,” he said. “So I would throw it. So Jerry Rice would catch it and it would be high or wide. Then we would get back to the huddle and he would say, `What was that?’ And I would say, `I’m going through this little process of faith.’ By the end of my career I was throwing a lot of balls blind.”
Young insists that the best way to be successful is to trust your instincts.
“When you can’t see him, have faith and let it go.”