Mark Zuckerberg was once neighbors with the Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young, who looks back fondly on his time living in Palo Alto, California. Manuel Orbegozo/REUTERS© Manuel Orbegozo/REUTERS

What’s it like being neighbors with Silicon Valley’s elite?
The Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young has some fond memories from his time living in Palo Alto.
He recently talked about being neighbors with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison.

Steve Young made a big name for himself in pro football, but on his old block in Silicon Valley, his neighbors were the talk of the town — especially on Halloween.

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When he lived in Palo Alto, California, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback counted Apple’s cofounder Steve Jobs, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Oracle’s cofounder Larry Ellison as neighbors.

“Everywhere you went, you were around people that were transforming the world,” Young said on an episode of the “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast released earlier this month. “And so as a player, as an athlete, you always feel like you’re a little bit of an impostor in that world because I don’t have a product. I don’t have this great idea. I just go play a game.”

Surrounded by a who’s who of Silicon Valley, Young said he felt a sense of “appreciation and kind of honor for the amazing things that are happening around me and seeing if I could play a small role in catching up and learning about it.”

Young recalled an interaction when he ran into Ellison and Jobs in the neighborhood.

Ellison remembered Young from their time playing pickup basketball together, but Young didn’t immediately recognize Ellison, he said. And Jobs didn’t remember Young, though they’d met five or six times before, Young said.

“I just thought it was a funny interaction where nobody knew each other. We’re all neighbors, and that’s the insanity of Silicon Valley in 1995 and 1998 and 2000,” he said. “It was a crazy, crazy time. The whole world now spins off of what happens here in many ways in technology.”

Young talked about walking around the neighborhood and seeing Jobs at work in his home office.

“He’d just be working, doing his thing, and that’s what I mean — that’s the neighborhood,” he said.

As for Zuckerberg, he “lives in a normal little house,” Young said.

Years ago, Zuckerberg spent over $30 million to buy four homes near his Palo Alto house for privacy. He’s also snapped up property at Lake Tahoe and has a massive compound in Hawaii.

Young remembered Zuckerberg showing him up on Halloween.

“He used to give out huge, giant Nestlé Crunch bars,” he said. “You’re like, ‘Bro, why are you making me look bad? Quit trying to shame me.’ This is, like, neighbor shame.”

Throughout the neighborhood, “Halloween night here is happening,” Young said.

“This whole block shuts down,” he said. “It’s a block party, and thousands of people come from all over the peninsula, and really all over Northern California, to be in these four, five blocks.”

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s stepdaughter are among Silicon Valley’s wealthy residents who have hosted Halloween parties for the public. Jobs also hosted parties in the area.

After Jobs’ death in 2011, his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, carried on their tradition of putting on a Halloween show for trick-or-treaters.

Young no longer lives in the same house but looks back on his time there as a pivotal period for tech.

“In Palo Alto, if you play football, pretty much nobody knows,” he said. “A number of times, people have knocked on my door and say, ‘Hey, does Mark Zuckerberg live nearby?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, just keep going that way.'”