Vince Young Is Bringing the Worst Out of Everyone

Never before has the cliché “The higher you go, the harder you fall” been more accurate than in the case of Vince Young.

Towards the end of the college career, analysts everywhere were saying that football was simply too easy for him at that level and that he almost had no choice but to enter a year early.

Things looked the same way for Young his first couple of months playing football, which was good enough to earn him a Pro Bowl slot as a rookie. He was average throwing the ball, but late in games he constantly managed to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Whether it was down 21-0 in the fourth against the Giants, or upsetting the eventual Super Bowl champion Colts, or even winning a ball game against the team that passed him up on a 40 yard run, Young was cruising through a league that was defined for torturing young quarterbacks. 

He put a team that added little talent in the offseason and held the third overall pick on his back to within one win of the playoffs. As far as high goes, he probably could have touched the asteroid belt that separates Mars and Jupiter.

Now he’s within reach of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

So how did this happen? Well, couple mediocre play with little supporting cast and you get inconsistent performance. Couple inconsistent performance with a media with high expectations and you get criticism. Couple criticism with a quarterback that is weak to adversity and you get Vince Young.

The discussion regarding Vince Young’s mental health or physical ability can shoot into multiple directions, but this is not what’s on my mind right now. The Titans are one of the more professional organizations in the league, yet every day there is a new report about Vince Young’s mental state, and frankly, it’s disappointing.

It’s the media’s job to report the news as they are told, so they can’t be blamed in this scenario. Even though it was frighteningly true, Jason Whitlock was merely doing his job in alerting his readers why players like Vince Young were not made to be in the NFL.

But why are those closest to Vince Young giving the media ammo to bring him down? The most recent report is that Young told his therapist he considered suicide at some point. Are you kidding me? Millions of Americans today are assured confidentiality by their therapists and as a result pour their most inner feelings into them. How come a high profile athlete is an exception?

Something’s wrong about that. It makes me sick to my stomach that a young man who is hitting some bumps in the road is having his entire personal information flood enroot to the front doors of the most famous reporters.

The Titans need to address this problem. They’re compromising the well being of their quarterback, which is the last thing they can afford to do given his current state.