Young ready to cancel the Montana Effect SUPERBOWL XXIX: 49ers quarterback has a point to prove as he tries to emerge fr om the shadow of a genius

Why is it that on a Bay Area radio phone-in a couple of years ago, someone describing himself as a fan of the San Francisco 49ers said that, despite his record-breaking season, she hoped the team's quarterback broke his leg so that his back-up wou ld be forced to play in a vital play-off game? It's called the Joe Montana Effect.

Why is it that, at Candlestick Park, where the 49ers play their home games, a little corner of the scoreboard is permanently devoted to the fortunes of the Kansas City Chiefs. It's called the Joe Montana Effect.

Why is it that at the 49ers' opening home fixture this season, the fans wearing Chiefs No 19 jerseys easily outnumbered those wearing the 49ers No 8? It's called the Joe Montana Effect.

Joe Montana last started a game for the 49ers nearly five years ago, but for many of the team's followers the four Super Bowls he won for the club mean that he will forever be their spiritual leader regardless of his current shirt colour. Regardless too,it seems, of the performances of Steve Young, the player whose burden it is to replace an NFL legend.

For Young, the Joe Montana Effect is the great unfairness of his life. An outstanding quarterback in his own right, at any other franchise his talents would attract unreserved adulation. At the 49ers they get only lukewarm admiration.

Tomorrow, however, Young gets a chance to change things. For the first time in his four years as a starter, the 49ers are back at the Super Bowl, facing a San Diego Chargers side they are expected to thrash.

There is something peculiarly unfair about the way Americans assess their quarterbacks. For all his gifts with the ball and courage in the pocket, true greatness, it seems, is bestowed only on those who win Super Bowls. The judgement is clearly flawed, for there are plenty of examples - Marino and Elway spring to mind - of those who are let down by weaknesses in other areas of the team.

Still the notion pervades, and Young knows that tomorrow's game offers a marvellous opportunity. If he succeeds it will be a glorious end to a season which began full of grim portent. Having won that first game, the 49ers travelled to Kansas City, Montana's new workplace. For Young the day could hardly have been worse.

The 49ers were widely regarded as the only team capable of displacing the Dallas Cowboys, the reigning Super Bowl champions, but lost 24-17 with Montana displaying much of the poise under pressure that had distinguished him as a 49er. The conclusions were obvious, if unjust. It did not matter that Young was playing behind a threadbare offensive line and suffered a beating. "Second to One," bellowed a typical headline, and the general conclusion was that Young still had much to learn. Young's team-mates could only sympathise. "There's no doubt about it," Ricky Walters, the team's running back, said. "We wanted to win it for Steve, not because of anything against Joe, because he's a great quarterback. But the fact is he's gone, and this guy [Young] is playing very well. I don't understand why he can't get his just due." A few weeks later it got worse. The 49ers had been crushed at home by the Philadelphia Eagles and, fearing for the safety of his play-caller, George Seifert, the team's head coach, yanked Young from the game. It was at that point that Young did something very strange. He began yelling at Seifert. For some players this might have been expected, but not from the normally reserved Young, whose serious demeanour befits the great-great great-grandson of Brigham Young, one of the founders of the Mormon religion. He could hardly have caused a bigger stir if he had dropped his trousers.

The next day it was Seifert who apologised, but the incident had a lasting effect. Young's first public display of emotion endeared him to his team-mates in a way his outstanding play never had. "Whenever a player chews out the coach, it seems he becomesone of the guys," Seifert said recently. "Now the other guys defend him in fights."

For his part, Young has recalled the incident with amusement this week. "It is just a matter of time. You can only hold it in for so long," he said. "You can yell at your coach and he apologises. That's a pretty good deal."

A week after the Philadelphia defeat, however, there was little sign of a turnaround. Trailing 14-0 in Detroit, their season was threatening to disintegrate. Gary Kubiak, the 49ers quarterback coach, who works closely with Young, recalls him pacing the sideline. "I said, `Steve, you can't make up 14 points in the next play. So play one play at a time, and everything is going to work out', and from that point on he took over and grabbed the season."

The 49ers beat Detroit and reeled off 10 successive victories, the most significant being the defeat of the Cowboys in which Young again demonstrated how lethal he can be when running the ball.

By the end of the regular season Young's contribution, as the 49ers established themselves as the best side in the league, had been immense, and on the way he significantly eroded Montana's monopoly of the 49ers record book: a higher career rating as a quarterback, the first player to head the quarterback rankings for four years in a row and more touchdown passes to Jerry Rice.

Just as important, a new team persona was developing. Encouraged by the recently signed Deion Sanders, the game's most extrovert character, these 49ers were more relaxed and took greater pleasure in their achievements than previous incarnations, and Young played his full part. They were also more united. When Young took a late hit in the play-off victory over Chicago, the whole offense piled in.

Still Young knows he is not there yet, that redemption remains one victory away. Harris Barton, an offensive lineman who has played under Montana and Young, said this week that he felt the 49ers were still Montana's team. "I look at two Super Bowl rings and think that Joe Montana got them for me. The seven guys who were in the last Super Bowl certainly haven't lost that feeling. I know I haven't. If we win the Super Bowl on Sunday then, hey, that's Steve Young's team."

You suspect that the 49ers' fans feel the same. Watching Young this week, brimful of confidence and eager for combat, the feeling grows that he's not about to waste his chance. The Chargers can throw what they like at him, but after tomorrow the Montana Effect may be a thing of the past.

n British bookmakers have failed to receive any significant bets on the San Diego Chargers despite the longest odds ever for the Super Bowl. "We have been forced to push the Chargers out to 6-1 from 9-2, and we still can't find any Chargers fans willing to back their team," Ian Wassell, a spokesman for Ladbrokes, said. San Francisco are listed at 1-12 favourites. Wassell said the most popular special bet offered is for the 49ers to win by 49 points. The odds, of course, are 49-1.