A gentle giant: 49ers’ Bryant Young heads to Hall of Fame

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

Bryant Young straddled the classic football divide between discipline and ferocity more adeptly than just about any player of his generation. For every minute of a 14-year NFL career spent entirely with the San Francisco 49ers, Young was a model teammate and a soft-spoken leader who selflessly made everybody around him better. And for 60 minutes on most autumn Sundays, Young was one of the most intimidating, vicious defensive linemen his teammates and opponents had ever seen. Young doesn’t see that dichotomy as a contradiction. In fact, he loved the chance to get a little crazy while being a measured man in every other area of life.