I guess its o.k. to start off by saying that just a few short years ago, 2005 to be exact, that a young quarterback from the University of Texas put on a show during the entire college football season, his name was Vince Young. His numbers at Texas that year were pretty amazing, he passed for 3,036 yards-26 TD’s posting a QB rating of 163.9 plus he was a monster on the ground with another 1,050 yards and 12 touchdowns. Think about those numbers for a moment, this was like combining Tom Brady’s passing and Michael Vick’s running ability in one freak of an athlete. For those who forgot or blacked it out their collective memories (I’m looking at you USC fans), he single-handily destroyed USC for the National Championship game and was christened by the media and fans alike as the next coming megastar in the NFL.

Fast forward a few months to the 2006 NFL Draft where most draft site/gurus had Vince going anywhere in the top 3 spots to either the Houston Texans ( Mario Williams #1 overall), New Orleans Saints ( Reggie Bush #2 overall), or the Tennessee Titans who ended up selecting Young third overall. Most of the talking head media said at the time that the Texans had missed the boat on Reggie Bush and would suffer in the long run, but an interesting side note was that the Texans stated that they were split on Young or Williams not the over-hyped Bush and ultimately decided on Williams (a solid choice but they still took a pounding by the fans). All Young did in his rookie season was win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year by posting 2, 199 yards and 12 TD’s through the air and another 7 TD’s and 552 yards on the ground. Great numbers when you realize that rookie QB’s don’t always play well in their first year. Things were great, his career was on the upswing and so was his team…So what happened in 2007 and 2008 that most people changed their minds and now considered Young a BUST of a player and draft pick?

Did he change as a player? Did he get lazy? Did the NFL figure him out as it has done to so many before him? The answer is Yes if you look at his stats the next few years he never improved in his second year as he threw for more yards but less TD’s and several more INT’s and the most importantly the Titans didn’t get any better. Yes, he was buying into the hype surrounding him, even coming out and saying that he didn’t have to try hard in college because he was better than most on the field and he was a lock to be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, the NFL defensive co-coordinators started to figure out his habits or lack of pure passing skills and made the adjustments, this is what they are paid to do. Once things started to go bad, they really went bad when he was replaced in 2008 with journeyman QB Kerry Collins and the Titans made the play-offs. The fans, the boo-birds and especially the media started calling him a bust, saying that he was never going to be a “real QB” in this league and this coupled with the benching got in his head. There was the mysterious disappearance of Young during the 2008 season which led to the Titans calling the police to locate their franchise QB. Rumors swirled that he was suicidal, that he was lazy, and that he was nothing more than a distraction for the team. In short Young had to not only grow-up on and off the field but he had to assess himself to find out what he wanted to do. This is a process that we all go through; trying to find ourselves as we grow older but now add to it the scrutiny and pressure that Young had thrust upon him and you can understand why it affected him.

What most people fail to realize in our fast paced information now society is that we like to put celebrities and athletes on a pedestal but we love to tear them down. It gives us a sense of accomplishment to mask our jealousy. But what people really love is the hard work comeback story of our athletes; use Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers as the example. He was the first round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in 1998 a baseball natural that would be the next superstar until his drug use derailed his career…he was an albatross for the organization and a poster child of what not to do for MLB….but of course we all know what happened next as cleaned up, made his comeback and became the leading vote getter for the All-Star game where he set the all time HR Derby record and hasn’t looked back since.

Vince is becoming the new comeback story for us to rally around this year. His team was winless and playing terrible through the first 6 games so fans were calling for the benching of Collins for Young (i.e. the backup is always better than the starter syndrome) to see what he can do and since that fateful game against Jacksonville on November 1st, he has flourished and so have the Titans winning five straight games. Is this just luck? An easy schedule? Who knows but I do know that America loves a comeback and if the Titans beat the undefeated Colts on Sunday and then go on to make the play-offs this year behind Young, the sky is the limit…that is until the fans/media decide to tear him down again for getting too big and to teach him a little humility…ah the wonderful world of professional sports today.

- Jeff Powers

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags | Football, Josh Hamilton, nfl, Texas Rangers, University of Texas, Vince Young