From In-Vince-Able to Invisible: The Tragic Falloff of Vince Young

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

In-Vince-able:

Throughout the entirety of the 2005 college football season, Pete Carroll’s USC Trojan team was being compared to some of the greatest teams of all time.

Often mentioned with the likes of the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, which produced 16 first-round draft picks, the Trojans—led by future first rounders Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush—were destined for eternal glory.

Winning by an average margin of just over 28 and-a-half points per game that season, USC stood undefeated coming into the Rose Bowl National Championship game, and was virtually unstoppable.

To climb this mountain and beat USC, it would take the performance of a lifetime.

That’s exactly what the college football world witnessed on January 4, 2006, in Pasadena.

Texas Longhorn quarterback Vince Young stared down the eyes of the monster that was the USC football team for four quarters of football and defeated it.

Passing for 267 yards and rushing for 200 more, Young scored three touchdowns on the ground and wowed a nation with one of the most memorable plays in recent college football history.

Trailing by four with only 19 seconds remaining on the clock, Young capped a 10 play, 56 yard drive with an eight yard rushing touchdown that propelled his team to the national title, and eventually catapulted himself into the limelight of the entire football world.

We all remember the “In-Vince-able” headline and the photo of Young drenched in confetti with the championship trophy in his hands.

This was an image and a performance that stood out not only to the fans, but to NFL scouts as well.

The 6'5" and 230 lbs. dual threat quarterback went on to be selected third overall by the Tennessee Titans that following April.

He proceeded to do what he did in college at the next level, using his freakish athletic ability to almost single-handedly win football games for the Titans.

Young is currently 18-11 as a starter.

Young started 15 games in the 2007 regular season and led the Titans to a 9-6 record in those games, resulting in the franchise’s first playoff birth since 2003. Young already had the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award under his belt, and even landed on the cover of the Madden video game franchise.

Not only was he one of the best athletes we had seen at the time, but also one of the leagues most marketable young stars.

An even-tempered southern boy from Houston who made it big—it was inevitable that Young would become one of the faces of the NFL.

At the ripe young age of 24, Vince Young was destined for NFL super-stardom.

Invisible:

Fast forward through the awards and endorsements to the present day, and we find 26-year-old Vince Young coming off the heels of an emotional and psychological breakdown.

After spraining his knee in the 2008 season opener, he lost his starting job to veteran Kerry Collins. Just as soon as he was out of a starting job, the rumors about Young’s emotional state, rather than physical state, began to swirl until it finally resulted in one of the more unusual and dramatic events the NFL has seen in recent memory.

On September 9, 2008, Vince Young went missing.

Young’s therapist, that he had visited earlier that day, went on record saying that he had mentioned suicide several times before leaving with a gun.

Young was allegedly upset about being booed against the Jaguars, a game in which he threw two interceptions and sprained his MCL.

Perhaps for a moment, the pressures of being an NFL icon became too much to handle?

Nobody knows what truly went on in the head of Vince Young that night.

He may have struggled with the thought of suicide for hours, or perhaps it didn't even cross his mind. But to be able to step back onto the field, Young would have to be cleared by a psychiatrist as mentally fit to participate in football.

Young looks back on the incident and calls it embarrassing, hoping that it is no indication of what many feel is a lack of heart and will to play the game.

But, could you really blame him for his epic breakdown?

He had the entire world in front of him, only to have it pulled out from under his feet.

The fact that he has only himself to blame for the depletion of his image—seeing as if he worked hard enough to get back to full health without having these character issues on his resume as well—was enough to push him over the edge and fall into NFL anonymity.

Now, Young finds himself with a seemingly impossible task: to battle his emotions, prove to his critics and coaches that he indeed still does want to play football, all while fighting to perform well enough to be given the opportunity to land himself back on an NFL field.

To climb this mountain, it will take the performance of a lifetime.

Again, like January 4th, 2006, the world waits anxiously for Vince Young to overcome all odds.

I, for one, will be rooting for another classic triumph for the underdog. 

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