After ESPN layoff, 49ers legend coaching Bay Area prep school team

After being laid off by ESPN in June, 49ers quarterback legend Steve Young has a new gig to keep him busy: coaching a Bay Area prep football team.

Menlo School — a private school in Atherton, one of American’s wealthiest ZIP codes — announced in July that Young was joining the school as an assistant coach for the girls’ flag football squad. He’s coaching alongside another former Niners quarterback, John Paye, who was drafted out of Stanford in the 1980s but never started for San Francisco. Paye, who is serving as the flag football team’s head coach, is a Menlo School alumni. 

“Paye has coached the school’s tackle football team in past seasons, and has led the girls’ basketball team in two stints for more than two decades,” the school said in a July press release. “He coaches Young’s oldest daughter in basketball, and will reunite on the field with his 49ers teammate. Young will serve as an assistant coach-guest lecturer-type for the girls’ flag team — and both his daughters — a senior and freshman — are lined up to play.”

ABC7 caught up with Young and his daughters at a recent game. Young was dressed in his typical business casual button-down shirt and slacks, this time paired with a wide-brimmed bucket hat to keep the sun off his face. 

“I love that they wanted to,” Young said when asked about his daughters’ drive to play football. “My boys didn’t really want to.”

Senior wide receiver Summer Young told ABC7 she was “ecstatic” that her school added a girls’ flag football squad. “I’m probably a more competitive person than he is, which says a lot,” Summer Young said, referring to her NFL Hall of Fame dad. “We work well together. He pushes me, and I can take it.”

The Menlo girls’ flag football season started on Aug. 21 and runs through Nov. 4.