In an excerpt from Steve Young’s new book, he recounts a time an NFL official tried to convince him to date his daughter who was at BYU.
Former BYU and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young had quite the career in Provo and then in the USFL and also the NFL where he won multiple Super Bowls, won MVP awards. Young has a new book coming out on October 11 titled The life story of Steve Young—“QB: My Life Behind the Spiral” by Steve Young with Jeff Benedict (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
In Peter King’s MMBQ column, he provides an excerpt from the book that is hard to believe. While in the NFL, and during a game no less, an official tries to convince Young to date his daughter when he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 1985 game against the Indianapolis Colts, which was a loss for Tampa Bay.
Even on the field, I can’t escape the craziness. We play the Colts at home. Partway through the second quarter I’m in the huddle when the head referee taps me on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he says. I step away from the huddle. “Hey, listen, my daughter’s going to BYU,” he whispers. Next thing I know he starts trying to convince me that I should meet his daughter. “I’d like you to take her out,” he says.
I cannot believe this. We’re in the middle of a game! “Oh, okay,” I said. “What’s her name?’’ He tells me and I return to the huddle … Late in the game we’re down 31-23 and I’m trying to mount a comeback. I scramble out of the pocket and take a brutal hit. It causes me to fumble just before the whistle blows to stop the play. I am lying on the ground when the defense recovers the loose ball, all but sealing our defeat. Suddenly out of nowhere a yellow flag lands next to me. The referee whose daughter is headed to BYU calls a personal foul on the defense. First down, Tampa Bay. I get up and brush myself off. Then the ref walks past me and whispers she likes Italian food.
This is just out of this world that an official would go mid-game and mid-huddle to interrupt Young who was in the huddle at the time. That official really had some gumption to interrupt a game to see if he could sway Young to date his daughter.
While he did not marry this girl but what we do not know from this excerpt is the outcome of this story and hopefully it will be addressed in the book. If the rest of the book is even in the neighborhood of this one snippet then we recommend everyone go out and buy this book ASAP.
