Steve Young interview about Alex Smith

There's been a lot of misquotes about what Steve said about Alex.

It's surprising, or maybe from reading Niner Talk during the offseason, not surprising at all, that what Steve said has been twisted to be a comment about Alex instead of about Matt Leinart. It's cool, I know how people on NT roll, they gotta get as many shots in about Alex as possible. I just hope the mods can keep this thread up because I feel Steve is being misrepresented in what he said. Here's the interview:

http://www.knbr.com/portals/3/podcasts/razormrt/0902young.mp3

Skip to about 3 minutes remaining. (right click save as to the link if you wanna be able to listen in windows media player or winamp).

So this quote that's going around,

"Phil Barber of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat says former 49ers quarterback Steve Young has harsh words for current starter Alex Smith. Young on KNBR radio: "I think Alex is a competent quarterback. I think Alex understands the game, and I'm telling you there's a reaction -- similar to Matt Leinart. He can't get out of third gear. He throws the nice ball, he can drop back. But when things get fast -- fast, fast -- you can tell, he just can't quite keep up. You really can't win jobs when you can't keep up."

Is being misconstrued. Sorry to say (to the Alex haters).

well its time for alex to show that he has caught up.

He's a HOF QB, so he can tell if another QB has that extra "gear". I trust Young's judgement.

With that said, I hope that Alex succeeds with what he has.

You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said that this is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear, and Alex has no more excuses. I agree with both.

Oh, sorry bro. I didn't even hear it. I'm almost in sleep mode..... zzzzzzz

Originally posted by DarthNiner:

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Oh, sorry bro. I didn't even hear it. I'm almost in sleep mode..... zzzzzzz

It's all good. I corrected my post you quoted btw. I should have added that to the Original Post. My bad.

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Honestly, I think you guys are hearing what you want to hear. This is anything but a glorifying set of commentary about Smith.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Honestly, I think you guys are hearing what you want to hear. This is anything but a glorifying set of commentary about Smith.

lol Directly in the show he says he looks like he has it. How is that hearing what we want to hear?

in other words, montana was a Ferrari, smith is a used corvette and lineart is a skateboard with three wheels. very clear message to me.

Originally posted by WillistheWall:

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Honestly, I think you guys are hearing what you want to hear. This is anything but a glorifying set of commentary about Smith.

lol Directly in the show he says he looks like he has it. How is that hearing what we want to hear?

I have nothing else to say. If he listens to the interview from around the Montana comment, and still feels the same way, then that's just how he feels. No argument will change that.

yeah, Phil Barber f**ked that quote up big time

.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Honestly, I think you guys are hearing what you want to hear. This is anything but a glorifying set of commentary about Smith.

Metrosexual Alert!

Originally posted by WillistheWall:

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Method:
You guys are still not listening to the interview.

Steve never said Smith is like Leinart, he brought up Leinart as an example of a slow-speed QB to help him demonstrate the difference of his earlier comment of high-gear QB story with Montana. He then said, "you can see Alex can get through 4th gear. This is the year that we'll see if Alex can shift into high gear," which shows that he already thinks Smith is much better then Leinart. Hopefully Smith can hit that high gear.

Honestly, I think you guys are hearing what you want to hear. This is anything but a glorifying set of commentary about Smith.

lol Directly in the show he says he looks like he has it. How is that hearing what we want to hear?

OK, I just listened to it. It does sound better the way he says it than how it was written. But he also makes it sound like "this is his year, the pressure is on, and he needs to move on from his past struggles". But you are right, the way he said it is better than what I read on paper.

alex smith > or = matt leinart
alex smith < and always will be < Steve Young