Review - QB: My Life Behind The Spiral

Brad Hubbard
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read

Steve Young was one of the better quarterbacks you are ever going to see on the football field. Not because he had a great arm and was accurate as all get out but because he was probably the best athlete on the field most of the time. Just getting on the field was a battle in and of itself and his book, QB: My Life Behind The Spiral, covers what it took to get him out there week in and week out among other things.

Full disclosure, I grew up a San Francisco 49er fan and watched the 49ers go from Joe Montana to Steve Young. It was a raging debate then and I am incredibly thankful that there was no 24 -hour cable news or social media back then because, man that would have been even uglier. It’s rare that a Hall of Fame quarterback is followed by another Hall of Fame quarterback but it happened in San Francisco. For 20 years the 49ers had one of the best quarterbacks in the league under center and 5 Super Bowls to show for it.

Young covered a lot. From growing up to his time at BYU to backing up Montana to being ‘the guy’ in San Francisco. For a good portion of that he struggled with sever anxiety. It was so bad that he could barley eat before a game. But Young’s competitive streak wouldn’t allow him to not be on the field. Lucky for 49er fans, Young was able to overcome anxiety and an endless string of injuries that would have kept a normal human being off the field.

Besides being competitive, Young is very serious about his Mormon faith. So much so that it took him longer than normal to find ‘the one’. He continues to come back to these two themes throughout the book which is something I am enjoyed. While I am not very religious, not Mormon and as single as it gets, it was nice to read about someone who has those things going on in their life besides being an NFL quarterback.

In the end, this is an read. It’s entertaining (he turned down what became Brett Favre’s part in ‘There’s Something About Mary’), unbelievable (how quickly he came back from injury after injury) and something that any 49er or football fan of the 80’s and 90’s would enjoy. It’s also a timely read when it comes to concussions and how Young was one of the lighting rods for the issue in the late 90’s.

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