After Steve Young hinted at a divorce with ESPN, employer and employee appeared in public looking happily wedded again.
The former 49ers quarterback and the Worldwide Leader have each made conciliatory statements to the media recently, just days after a Bloomberg feature painted a controversial picture of Young’s dedication to his analyst job on “Monday Night Football,” which Young called a “disservice to my passion and expertise at ESPN and for football.” The Hall of Famer told the magazine he might have left ESPN years ago if the perks of having access to client-friendly suites at games didn’t help his other career in private equity.
“I participated in this story to encourage athletes to think about their futures because I want to inspire them to think this way,” Young said in a statement to Sporting News. “I have worked hard to build an expertise in two different fields, and I am proud of that. I have built one over the course of 35 years as a football player and analyst. The other, in private equity, I’ve established over 18 years. I’m focused on being excellent at both — and without sacrificing one for the other. Staying connected to the game and working for ESPN are very meaningful to me. In no way did I intend to suggest otherwise.”
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Steve Young: I would leave ESPN if not for my other job 0:0 Steve Young would love to run as far away from… An ESPN spokeswoman, senior vice president of events and studio production Stephanie Druley, gave Young a nearly flawless report, as the network attempted to counter Bloomberg’s portrayal of him giving little effort to his gameday preparations. Young had said, according to Thursday’s feature, he rarely even finds time to watch the Monday game because he’s so focused on striking deals with potential clients. After many outlets picked up on the note that a high-profile ESPN personality admitted he barely prepared, ESPN tried to quash the story.
“Steve is one of the most respected analysts in football and he remains committed to his job at ESPN,” Druley said. “His producers and colleagues have noted his work ethic internally, his level of preparation and the effort he brings each week. In addition to analyzing ‘Monday Night Football,’ he watches games, actively participates in production meetings and contributes weekly analysis to our studio shows using a camera that ESPN installed in his office. He is one of the veterans of our analyst team and he’s constantly making fans smarter about the game.”
Young also appeared on Bloomberg TV Monday, face-to-face with the author of the article, and disputed rumors of an ESPN conflict and a dislike for football. The article quoted him as saying he sees himself “as a deal guy first. I’ve put football behind me. Roger Staubach once told me — and I’ll never forget it: ‘When you retire, run. Never look back.’”
“It really isn’t to run away from the game,” Young said, when asked to clarify his comments. “It’s to not dwell on it and have a plan. And one of the reasons why we sat down for the article was to talk about mentorship and how I can get players today to be thinking about their futures, to make sure they’re prepared with their education. … But I certainly think it’s a little disservice in the article about my passion and expertise at ESPN and for football. I mean the truth is I spend an inordinate amount of time in the fall preparing for my job.
“I don’t want to do a disservice to my family at ESPN, who I’ve been with longer than the 49ers, so there are so many rich relationships there. I feel like they’re not in conflict, the two jobs, at all, and I’m really lucky to have them both.”
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