This Hall of Fame Father-Daughter Duo Might Win Gold
Could Steve Young coach his daughters on Team USA’s flag football team? Never say never.
Out of nowhere, in the middle of the week, came some unexpected news. Every Olympics, certain sports are added, while others are unceremoniously taken away; in Paris next summer, break dancing will make its official debut. These judgements—deciding what is and isn’t an Olympic sport—are ordered from behind closed doors, often without warning. One day, you might think of yourself as a hobbyist; the next, you’re an Olympic hopeful.
Cricket, the IOC announced, would be included at the 2028 games in Los Angeles. So would lacrosse, squash, baseball, and softball. Then came one final, addition: football. Flag football. As in, the game you used to play at the YMCA, where spin moves are a real-life cheat code.
Immediately after the announcement came the speculation: Who would be on Team USA? Let’s see…Patrick Mahomes at QB, Justin Jefferson at receiver, Christian McCaffery at running back…how is any country going to stop that? But it won’t only be about the men’s tournament. The IOC also announced that women’s flag football would be included in Los Angeles as well; it will be the first time ever that women can play football at a high level. But who will play on that team? Where will those players develop? The answer I found—at least in one case—is nothing short of delightful.
Why? Well, come 2028, there might just be a familiar name—two actually—lining up at wide receiver for Team USA’s women’s flag football team.
And there might be a familiar name coaching, too.
After all, who doesn’t love a father-daughter story?
Earlier this year, the state of California made women’s flag football an officially-sanctioned high school sport, and in the Bay Area, the Menlo School started a team. Sisters Laila Young, a freshman, and Summer Young, a senior, signed up. At the very first practices, they learned formations and calls straight out of Bill Walsh’s legendary playbook. Teaching them was their father and the team’s assistant coach: Hall of Fame 49ers quarterback Steve Young.
“My brothers,” Summer explained, “I think [my dad] expected them to play football, but they didn’t. So, this is, like, his shining moment.”
Laila plays at the X. Summer plays the Z (“Jerry Rice’s position,” said Steve). Go to a Menlo Knights practice, and you might see the Hall of Famer explaining the intricacies of how to read a defense or mentoring a quarterback on the mental part of the game (“Everyone else can be freaking out. You’ve got to be peaceful”). Before games, Summer breaks the team out of a huddle: “We have strength! We have heart! We have that dawg in us!” Flag football might seem like a far-cry from Friday Night Lights, but up close, when you see the lived experience of this team, you see them start to fall in love with all the same things boys have identified with for decades.
“This is America’s game, and they’re playing it,” Steve Young says. “We talk about inclusion a lot now. This is what it feels like and looks like. And it feels like we should have been doing this for 30 years.”
After tough defeats, “Coach Steve” pulls players aside to remind them that “there is great potential” in failure, so long as they find the lesson in it. “A coach is like a parent, a priest, a policeman—the people in our society that we trust to do good with the power they have,” Young said. “A coach is a powerful position because so much human development can happen. It’s not just how you throw a ball or run a route that a coach can influence, but who you will become as a person.”
Football, you see, has never been just about playing football. Maybe the Young’s will make it to the Olympics, all together. Maybe they won’t. But what matters most is that there will now be countless other fathers and daughters across the world having similar moments in the coming years—bonding over a shared sport, learning from each other, embracing their potential.
“You grew up going to the boys’ games, and you never really got to experience it yourself,” Summer said. “It’s a sport I always wanted to play—and now I get to.”
🏒 For the Washington Post, a lovely read about an octogenarian still playing women’s hockey. “Why not?” asks 83-year-old Linda Sinrod.
🌎 I missed this fun feature from the Boston Globe, who sent a writer to the “Seven Wonders of the Sports World.” Right up our alley.
😮 More ump cam!!
👏 The best thing in sports this week: the record-breaking crowd that came to watch Iowa’s women’s basketball team play at their football stadium.
📺 Sometimes, the superstition just doesn’t quite work.
🥍 Last year, we shared the story of the Haudenosaunee team at the World Games. Now that lacrosse will be included in the 2028 Olympics, there’s renewed hope that Indigenous communities might be included on the biggest possible stage.
🙊 New York Giants offensive lineman Justin Pugh just came out of retirement. The reason? Jerry Seinfeld! Wait…what?
