Like many others, 49ers legend Steve Young was upset San Francisco gave up on young quarterback Trey Lance last week by trading him to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round draft pick.
Not for the obvious reasons, though.
Young wasn't put off by the trade itself, but rather who the 49ers dealt the 23-year-old to.
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“I have PTSD,” Young told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week. “I feel like we should never trade anything to the Dallas Cowboys ever again after the Charles Haley disastrous mistake. You can easily say we traded away some Super Bowls when we did that. That’s an overstatement. But I felt that way.”
The Hall of Fame quarterback lived through those intense battles with the Cowboys that became a rivalry for the ages.
San Francisco traded Haley, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, to Dallas before the start of the 1992 season. He went on to win three Super Bowls with the Cowboys and is a member of both teams' Hall of Fame.
San Francisco 49ers
In 12 NFL seasons, Haley registered 100.5 sacks, two interceptions, 26 forced fumbles and a touchdown. He was selected to five Pro Bowls and was a two-time First-team All-Pro.
Thirty-one years after the Haley trade, San Francisco's more recent stunner made Young take a trip down memory lane for all the wrong reasons.
With the 49ers-Cowboys rivalry very much still alive, the former No. 3 overall pick wearing a blue star on his helmet could potentially revitalize future matchups between the two teams, including their Week 5 Sunday Night Football game at Levi's Stadium.
But for Young's sake -- and the 49ers -- he's hoping the organization didn't make another mistake trading away a star to its NFC foe.