Steve Young spoke to the media after Sunday’s halftime ceremony retiring his No. 8. Here’s a selection of his remarks.

Q: What’s it like to be here and have your number retired?

Young: It’s the sounds and the smells. It’s the grass. It’s the memories. It’s Pavlovian – it’s time to go play. It’s a lot of emotions about a lot of years, great times, hard times, significant times to me, growing. I just feel grateful the honor came. I wanted to play (today). I said to Jerry (Rice) ‘It’s when you were at your best.’ It’s not that my life isn’t sublime now and great in many ways. It was a significant time in sports history as well. There’ll never be a time like that again. I’m just grateful. (He laughs in an embarrassed way.) Obviously I’m feeling a lot of things.

Q: Could he reflect back on the start of his career?

Young: My idea was take it a step at a time. The one thing I knew I was going to do, I was going to get better. And I’ll tell you I’m grateful for the platform. Bill Walsh told me many times that anyone who came to this place was very lucky. “You have a platform to see how good you can be.” When my wife and I were driving to the stadium we said it’s too bad that Bill is not here. I appreciate all that he did even when he put me in down by two in Chicago for no reason. (He laughs again. Now it’s a happy laugh.)

Q: Why is Eddie D not here?

Young: He’s got surgery of some kind.

Q: Would Young like to own a football team?

Young: I don’t have the money for it but I know people who do.

Q: Would you be the front man for them?

Young: I don’t know but I’d certainly be involved.

Q: What does it feel like when you watch the 49er offense and it’s not the West Coast Offense?

Young: It’s like being in Pittsburgh and them having a different kind of defense. It is what it is, but I certainly tell you there is a heritage here of whatever the West Coast is. You can say that maybe it was conceived other places but it was born here. To not see someone run a slant pattern for a few weeks it’s hard, but time moves on. There’s no one running the West Coast of 1985. The game’s moved on but there’s certain elements of it you’d love to see more of.

Q: When you look at J.T. O’Sullivan what do you see?

Young: I see a kid who’s set up base camp, as Bill Walsh used to say, for the climb of his own career. He’s going to play football in the NFL for a while and now it’s a matter, as Bill would say, of moving up the mountain. Think about what he’s done in four or five months here. It’s significant.

Q: Bill seems to speak through you a lot.

Young: When I first got here he was so far ahead of his time, how players were treated, how you practiced. What kind of offense did you run on third and 6, third and long? He was so far ahead of the game in so many ways. I’m a philosopher at heart. I’m a guy that enjoys looking to the future of what could be. I was always energized by Bill. His offense – he’d look at me like there’s things that you can do I want to see. And I wanted to embody that for him. I wanted to show him that his offense was something I could completely embrace and it could take every bit of me. And it really did. It took every bit of me to do it well.