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Steve Young helped steer Lions' Ansah to football

San Francisco — Without Steve Young, Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah might have never played football.

Through a missionary working in Ghana, Young’s charity — the Forever Young Foundation — installed a sport court in Ansah’s hometown of Accra in 2007.

From there, people started to see the 6-foot-5 Ansah’s tremendous athletic ability.

“In that sport court, they would have pickup games and this skinny little kid, 6-5 kid, would come over and play basketball, Ziggy Ansah,” Young said

Thursday during a Super Bowl media event with ESPN analysts. “And they said, ‘Ziggy, you should play basketball.