Former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark caught his last NFL touchdown pass from quarterback Steve Young. Clark, who is best known for "The Catch" during the NFC Championship Game on January 10, 1982, passed away on Monday after a brave battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
"I just played one year with him," Young said during a KNBR interview on Monday. "I threw his last touchdown. I never told him, 'I threw your last touchdown pass your whole career. I thought it was the only one I would ever throw.'"
Young was joking, of course. He did throw Clark's last career touchdown reception but had already thrown touchdowns as a 49ers quarterback. Despite playing just one season with Clark, Young feels like he played 10 years with the Bay Area icon. One thing the former quarterback remembers about Clark is how tough he was on the football field.
"I always describe to people, what is the West Coast Offense? It's third-and-three, Dwight Clark stands up, you throw him the ball, and then he falls forward for three yards," Young said. "That's the West Coast Offense. Why drop back 17 yards and throw the deep end, like the Raiders are doing? Bill (Walsh) just changed that all. But Dwight took a beating! They couldn't stop it. How many slants did Dwight catch and just get nailed?"
Young went on to explain that there was a misconception about the 49ers back then. Opponents believed the team was soft because it didn't play like the New York Giants.
"We'd run circles around them," Young said. "Then [they would] get beat, and they were so frustrated because they kind of felt like, 'Well, you didn't fight me. You just ran around.' But they didn't realize how tough we were. They always didn't understand that, yeah, we had this West Coast Offense. Yeah, it's more about timing and the choreography. But the thing that they always underestimated in us was that we're as tough or tougher than you are. And that's why Dwight, I think, epitomizes that."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Young below.
