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Steve Young

Young explains why 49ers' old Super Bowl-or-bust mindset won't work now

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On “49ers Talk,” Matt Maiocco chats with Hall of Famer Steve Young about how he sees Brock Purdy’s development.

Steve Young was around for three of the 49ers’ Super Bowl titles, including one as the team’s starting quarterback.

When the 1994 NFL season began, 49ers ownership and management was growing restless. Coach George Seifert was on the hot seat and Young was under pressure to deliver.

Winning NFL MVP was one thing, but it was viewed as meaningless unless there was a Lombardi Trophy attached to it at the end of the season.

Those were the days when big changes were certain to be made if the 49ers went any amount of time without winning a Super Bowl.

Under incredible pressure, the 49ers won the organization’s fifth Super Bowl after the 1994 season.

And, now, the 49ers have gone 30 seasons without winning another.

Young sees the current 49ers team and believes there are a lot of similarities with the teams of the 1980s and ‘90s. He identifies superior coaching, a strong roster and the “spirit” of a championship team, he told NBC Sports Bay Area recently at the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

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“We should think Super Bowl, and they are,” Young said on the latest "49ers Talk," which debuted Sunday. “And when they come up short, you just have to grit your teeth, throw up in your mouth and spit it out, and we’re going to go do it again.

“And they’re up to it. There’s no less likelihood they win the Super Bowl this year based on last year.”

The 49ers have advanced to the NFC Championship Game in four of the past five seasons. They have twice played in the Super Bowl, and both times lost fourth-quarter leads (or later) to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Under the direction of former owner Eddie DeBartolo and top executive Carmen Policy, such disappointments might have led to a scorched-earth approach. After all, in the seasons when Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh was not able to deliver a championship, it often led to conflict and near-firings or resignations.

Those who recall the championship-or-else days might wonder if current coach Kyle Shanahan or general manager John Lynch are under the same kind of pressure to deliver a Super Bowl win.

And Young acknowledged in the good ol' days people's jobs might be at stake with so many near-misses.

“That’s true,” Young said. “That’s true. But it’s a different game, too. It’s hard to say, ‘Oh, let’s do it (like the past).’ The game has completely changed because of the rule changes for safety and personnel, and how we pay personnel and how we hold onto people and rookie salary cap. . . ."

As the 49ers begin another season, there are no suggestions that CEO Jed York is even considering changes to the top of the organization’s football structure if they go another season without a Super Bowl.

After all, the 49ers are generally considered to have one of the best coach-management pairings in the NFL. Shanahan and Lynch, who signed multiyear contract extensions in 2023, widely are considered among the best in the league at their jobs.

“It’s a different paradigm,” Young said. “You can take some modeling and some things from the past, but don’t tell me that because they did it in the past, they should do it here. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

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