Steve Young has been a member of the ESPN family for a long time but that ended on Friday when he was part of the company’s major layoffs.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback initially appeared on Sunday NFL Countdown in 2000 and became a full-time ESPN talent in 2001. He served as an analyst on four of ABC’s Super Bowl pre-game shows and was part of ESPN’s studio team for the NFL Draft telecast for five years.
Young was laid off along with Suzy Kolber, signaling a major change in ESPN’s NFL coverage moving forward.
“Both Kolber and Young were integral parts of ESPN’s NFL coverage over the years,” wrote Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia. “During April’s NFL Draft, Kolber conducted interviews with players, as she has for the last several years. Both Kolber and Young had been fixtures on Monday Night Countdown in recent seasons, primarily appearing with Robert Griffin III, Booger McFarland, and Adam Schefter this past season.”
The news that Young’s time with ESPN was over was met with some strong reactions.
Another tough one. When you watch post-Super Bowl coverage, you go to ESPN for Boomer leading the charge with the highlights/Primetime music, then Young would help lead the way with analysis and putting things in historical context post-highlights. Won’t quite feel the same. https://t.co/0bp3oNCESw
— Brent Schwartz (@BrentSchwartzz) June 30, 2023
Somewhat shocked by this. Always loved when Young would appear on @pti during each @NFL season, had a great ability to educate in an interesting way IMHO. https://t.co/iU978UJVMd
— Tony Dobson (@toneboy) June 30, 2023
— Rob Connett (@RobConnett1) June 30, 2023
Wow….cut throat business. Great talents who ended up costing too much…. https://t.co/PRMxGAq4xZ
— Mike Byker (@mbyk52) June 30, 2023
Don’t cry too much for Young. The Hall of Famer still has his private equity company, HGGC, where he is currently Chairman, Co-Founder, and Partner to focus on.
